


The Ookami Among Us.

by Rebel1ov3Song



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-02-17 03:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2294564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebel1ov3Song/pseuds/Rebel1ov3Song
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The turtles go out on what seems to be the easiest 'mission' ever, and they get more than they bargained for when they find a mysterious girl being mutated by the Kraang. She is modeled after the Ookami, an ancient Japanese legend, and could be considered more dangerous than even the most skilled Kunoichi. The only problem is, she doesn't remember anything. Not even her own name. On top of that, they have no idea what the Kraang -or even possibly Shredder- want with her. As they all search for her identity, she finds it herself in the most unlikely places, along with something that could change all of their lives forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To Find an Ookami

**Author's Note:**

> Yessss! I am SO excited to post this! I just started watching this series and couldn't stop. Just as a before note, SPOILERS. If you aren't caught up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as of Season 2 episode 22, don't read! I mean, you can read, but be prepared for spoilers!

 

“BOOYAKASHA!” Splat! Mikey laughed as the water balloon successfully hit his hot tempered brother, Raph, square in the face. The red-masked turtle released a growl and turned to his younger brother, his eyes burning.

“Michelangelo!” he cried.

“Oh no…” Mikey backed away slowly. He knew his tail was fried when Raph used his full name. “I think I’ll just go check on Donnie now BYE!” Raph chased Mikey into Donnie’s lab, much to the gap-toothed turtle’s annoyance. He was running around like crazy, doing his best to catch everything Mikey and Raph were knocking over in their fight. After 15 years, Donnie knew better than to try and break them up. Raph was too determined and Mikey was too… Well stupid. The microscope on his desk crashed into the ground before he could catch it. He mentally cursed his argumentative brothers when he discovered that the lens was cracked.

“Guys!” he complained. “Where am I supposed to get a new one of these?” He held up the cracked piece of equipment.

“Sorry D!” Mikey yelled as he ran by, barely missing Raph’s punch.

“That’s it, I’m bringin’ out the Sai,” Raph growled, pulling out one of his signature weapons from the belt around his shell.

“Nonononono! Anything but the Sais!” Mikey pleaded. Raph grinned, and was about to jump on the little twerp, when Leo walked in.

“What in the heck is going on in here Donnie?” he asked. “They’re having re-runs of Space Heroes, and I’m trying to watch it!”

“Not me,” Donnie grumbled, begrudgingly putting all of his lab equipment back in their original places. Leonardo stood there for a moment, taking in the scene. Raph had put his Sai away, but was still fuming as he glared at Mikey. The smaller turtle was giving him the puppy eyes in a vague attempt to not get pummeled into the ground for whatever he’d done.

“Mikey,” Leo asked calmly. “What’d you do?” Mikey was about to answer, when Raph cut him off.

“I’ll tell you what he did! He’s throwing water balloons again! He hit me in the face!” Leo grimaced at how loud Raph’s voice had become. Before he could think of a reply, the sound of the Dojo door opening had all four turtles standing tall. Obviously all of their fighting and yelling had pulled Sensei out of his meditative trance. Sure enough, their rat-teacher appeared in the doorway of Donnie’s lab.

“What are you boys still doing here this late? I thought you were supposed to be out collecting the mutagen that you spilled all over the city.” Splinter asked. Although his voice was gentle, it was still accusing.

“Sensei,” Raph explained. “I was just getting ready to get Donnie, like Leo told me to when Mikey here decided that it would be funny to throw a water balloon at my face.” Truth be told, none of the turtles were planning on going out tonight, and Leo hadn’t told Raph to go get Donnie at all. Not that any of them were going to contradict their brother’s lie. Then they’d all get their shells chewed by Splinter. Splinter stood silently for a moment, pulling on his tied-up beard. Mikey grabbed Leo’s hand and tugged him past Splinter. Donnie and Raph caught on and followed.

“So I guess we’ll be going now,” Donnie said hesitantly, grabbing his Bo. Before Splinter could give a final answer, the boys ran out and got in the Shellraiser. Splinter watched them go, shaking his head. He walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer door. Ice Cream Kitty meowed and handed him a cheesesicle.

Leo hopped up in the front seat and started her up.

“Donnie, do you have any readings from here?” Donnie looked impatiently at his mutagen tracker.

“Nope, looks like we’re driving around aimlessly in hopes of running into something,” Donnie replied.

“Great,” Raph complained. Mikey sighed and started randomly sliding the microscope on his map around. After 3 hours of driving, the tension inside the Shellraiser was too much for Mikey to handle. The poor guy just couldn’t help himself, and he conveniently had 2 more water balloon on him. Careful not to draw any suspicion, he took out the purple balloon and aimed it at Donatello. Donnie was too busy glaring down his mutagen tracker, as if staring at it would make mutagen appear. As the water balloon left Mikey’s hand, Leo hit a bump in the road, shaking the Shellraiser and its occupants. The balloon’s trajectory shifted down, right onto the mutagen tracker. It popped on the antenna, and sparks flew from the little box as the screen flickered to black.

“Mikey!” Donnie yelled. He shook the tracker and banged it against the palm of his hand. Nothing. Nota, zip, zilch. The tracker was down for the count. “How do we find the mutagen now?”

“Nice going shell for brains,” Raph growled from the weapons station. Leo turned around in the driver’s seat.

“What happened now?” he asked.

“Mikey threw another water balloon,” Donnie replied. “It hit the tracker and now it’s shorted out.” Leo put a 3-fingered hand on his forehead and dragged it down dramatically.

“Really Mikey? You couldn’t have just thrown it at Raph again?” he asked.

“Hey!”

“No! I already threw Raph’s balloon at him. That one was meant for Donnie, not the tracker.” Mikey held up the remaining, blue, water balloon. “This one is yours, and I’m not tellin’ you when I’m going to throw it.” Just as Leo was about to turn around to watch where he was going, Mikey threw the balloon. The impact of the cold water caused Leo to jolt, and take the Shellraiser with him. A collective of cries bounced around the metal interior as they crashed into a dead end alley.

“How many things are you going to break today Mikey!?” Donnie shouted. There was an edge to his voice that they rarely heard. Mikey laughed nervously. His freckled cheeks were flushing a red color.

“Sorry guys,” he muttered. “She’ll still drive, won’t she?” Leo reeved the engine.

“Still works. Donnie, can you and Raph get out and make sure nothing important is busted outside?” Donnie gave a slight nod before he and Raph slipped out the roof door.

“What do you want me to do Leo?” Mikey asked.

“You’ve done enough. Just sit there and don’t throw any more water balloons.” Leo was using his “leader voice”, which most of them ignored. This time, Mikey was in enough trouble that he thought it in his best interest to listen. Ever since Karai had been turned into a giant serpent, Leo had been grumpy and angry. Even though he always tossed back the guys’ theory that her disappearance was the cause of Leo’s recent attitude, Mikey knew that was it. Leo hadn’t caught her, and he was beating himself up over it. Raph jumped back into the Shellraiser.

“If you want to get this baby back to lair, you’d better start driving Leo, ‘cause we’re leaking fuel.” Donnie hopped in shortly after and got in his chair. The ride back was very silent and very uncomfortable for Mikey. The fun-loving party turtle preferred being yelled at and beaten up by Raph over this. And his brothers knew that too. It was exactly why they were doing it. They would easily forgive Mikey, because what he was doing was just… Him. He was like their personal comic relief. Just not always at the right time.

Raph hadn’t been kidding when he said they needed to start driving as soon as he’d seen the leak. The Shellraiser sputtered and putted the final few feet to the lair on fumes. The door opened with its signature ‘ding dong’, and the turtles stepped out. They converged in the pit they used for a living room and finished up the last couple of episodes of Space Heroes, before they all turned in for the night. Well, all of them except for Donnie. He retreated into his lab, and set about fixing his mutagen tracker.

☯

Three turtles sat in the kitchen finishing up their breakfast, which consisted of the previous night’s pizza that Mikey had thrown into the microwave. Raph let out a belch and put his hand against his plastron where his stomach would be.

“Gross dude! Pizza breath,” Mikey laughed, waving away the invisible green cloud of Raph’s belch-breath. Leo held a hand up to his nose.

“When was the last time you brushed your teeth? Or had a mint?” he asked.

“When was the last time you were the handsome one?” Raph smirked. By turtle standards, he was the hottest. Mikey jumped up.

“I know! That time when you were mind switched with a Kraang and you were a little alien brain.” Mikey stood there, very proud of his observation. “Even then, that’s a long time to go without brushing dude. You’re gonna have a tooth gap like Donnie before long.” Raph was about to start threatening Mikey, when Leo cut in.

“Where is Donnie anyways? He didn’t even come out for breakfast.”

“He’s still in his lab. Has been since last night,” Raph pointed out. “It’s a miracle the guy can function during the day.”

“Maybe we should go check on him?” Mikey asked. With a nod from Leo, the threesome headed through the pit and to the entrance of the lab.

“Donnie?” Raph called. “If you answer now I won’t break all of your dumb science stuff.” Leo hit the back of Raph’s arm. “What? I wasn’t actually going to break anything.” After scoping the lab, they decided that their genius of a brother wasn’t in his lab.

“Where else would he be?” Mikey asked.

“Let’s see, what else did you break last night?” Leo perked up at Raph’s snide comment.

“The Shellraiser! He’s probably out fixing the leak.” Sure enough, their missing brother was sticking halfway out from under their turtle-fied subway car.

“Hey Donnie!” Mikey called. “You missed breakfast. It’s pizza, your faaaavorite.” Donnie pushed out from under the Shellraiser and wiped a grease stain from his forehead.

“You mean your favorite Mikey,” he replied, pointing his wrench at the turtle in question. Mikey shrugged and went about being, well, Mikey.

“Did you fix the leak?”

“I will be able to, as soon as we get the cap back. Technically, it wasn’t even broken; the cap must’ve popped off at impact. I did fix the tracker though, so that’s no longer a problem.”

“That’s great Donnie, good job,” Leo replied. “I managed to hide some of the pizza from Mikey if you’re hungry.”

“Actually, April’s coming over, so I was going to clean up,” Donnie said at the same moment Mikey cried out,

“You hid pizza from me? I thought we were bros!” Mikey gave Leo his best sad face.

“You are, but Donnie is too. And he’s less annoying.” Mikey huffed and stomped back into the lair. He jumped over the little pool in the back and got up in his tire swing, pulling out a horror comic to read. The rest followed in at a more normal pace.

“You know Donnie,” Raph said as he watched Donnie scramble around to pick up empty pizza boxes and the other various trash items they’d left lying around. “I don’t think April really cares if it’s messy in here. Come on dude, we live in a sewer.”

“I know, but I think it shows that we care and want her to feel more at home here. I’m sure her living room doesn’t look like this.” By now Raph couldn’t even see Donnie’s face past all of the trash piled up in his arms.

“And I’m sure that she isn’t a mutant turtle. Who lives. In the sewer.”

Leo walked in from the kitchen, with a plate of steaming pizza in his hand. Mikey ran up to take it from him, and Leo simply held his arm up while Mikey jumped at it like a little puppy.

“Translation: He wants April to know that he cares.” Donnie sputtered and nearly dropped his pile.

“I-I do not!” Raph laughed from his place on the bean bag chair.

“She probably already knows. It’s not like he’s subtle about it.”

“Yeah,” Mikey joined in. “He gets all jumbled and clumsy when she’s around.” Raph jumped up and faked getting little hearts in his eyes.

“Look at me, I’m Donatello and I love April and I’m not in any way subtle about it!” he mocked.

“Guys,” Donnie whined. “I’m standing right here.” Raph snickered.

“Go finish taking out the trash lover-boy.” Donnie grumbled, but remembering what time April said she’d be there, which was now in 5 minutes, he took off to get rid of the unwanted trash. April showed up right on time, as always. She’d always been very punctual about things. She wasn’t late, she got everything done efficiently, and she always answered her phone; little things that Donatello adored. She dragged herself into the pit, and flopped face down onto the concrete slab that they’d thrown pillows on and used as a large sectional. Raph watched with mild curiosity, and then went back to playing video games with Mikey. Mikey took more interest than Raph, the controller in his hands long forgotten. Raph shrugged and continued to take out Mikey’s character.

“Whoa April,” he said. “You look like Death rolled over.” Upon hearing this Donnie came back in as fast as he could without trying to be too obvious.

“Are you sick? Maybe you should go to the lab and let me check you over…” he moved to put his hand on her forehead, when her small hand shot up and grabbed him by the wrist. She pushed his hand away and sat up slowly.

“I’m not sick, just mentally exhausted. Finals are this week,” she explained. Donnie nodded but didn’t really comprehend what she was saying. He was too busy staring at how close her hand was to his. She released and sat up, tucking one leg under her. She pulled her backpack into her lap and pulled out her textbooks.

“Really April?” Mikey moved so that he was right up in her face. “You’re in a lair with mutant ninjas, and you want to study? Borrrrr-ing!” April huffed and half-heartedly pushed Mikey away.

“It’s not like I want to. But I need to pass these finals if I want to move up next year. With everything going on in my life now, school kina got put on the back burner.”

“I think what you’re doing is admirable,” Donnie piped up. “None of the others would be able to keep up two separate lives like you.”

“And you could?”

“Well, I am the… Umm…” April raised her eyebrows while she watched the purple-masked turtle scramble for words. Mikey came to his rescue… Sort of.

“The nerd!”

“Yeah, I’m the ner- Mikey!” Donnie got up and chased Mikey around while the smaller turtle just laughed and dodged every blow that came his way. April looked from Leo to Raph. Leo just looked like he wanted to gouge his eyes out with his Katanas, and Raph looked like he was secretly dying to join in. Releasing a huff of breath, April re-packed her backpack and headed into the Dojo. Master Splinter surely wouldn’t mind, and it was quiet in there. Trigonometry wasn’t an easy task when it was quiet, let alone when it was loud.

“Where’d April go?” Donnie asked breathlessly. Mikey face-planted into the floor.

“She got tired of you too messing around and left. Maybe she won’t come back,” Raph joked. Poor Donatello didn’t catch on, and the other three turtles could practically see the rain cloud forming over his head.

“Really?” The sad look on his brother’s face was almost too much for Leo to bear.

“No, Raph’s just being a jerk. She went into the Dojo with her books. It was probably too loud out here for her to concentrate.”

“Oh,” Donnie said, immediately brightening up. “How about we wait until its dark and then head back to get the cap for the Shellraiser.”

“Sounds good to me,” Raph called on his way to the kitchen. The other two nodded their consent, and headed on their way. Mikey- to his room to do who knows what, and Leo- into the kitchen after Raph. Donnie trudged his way into the lab, slightly upset that he wasn’t spending any time with April. Maybe she can come to get the gas cap. There shouldn’t be any fighting, and she’d be completely safe with us, even though she can fight for herself… April had spent the past 6 months training with the turtles’ Sensei, and it showed. She was starting to come along with them on more patrols, and was actually keeping up with them. Donnie decided he’d ask her when she came out of the Dojo herself. He’d rather not risk startling her while she was engrossed in her work.

☯

 

“Hold on, why did the Shellraiser crash again?” April asked. She’d readily agreed to come with them, thankful for the distraction from numbers and equations. She had a tank of gas in her lap, to make up for what they were currently leaking out now.

“I don’t know,” Raph growled. “Why don’t you ask Mikey?” Mikey laughed nervously and dropped his little lamp over his face. April shook her head.

“You know what? I don’t think I need to know.” They all jostled as they went over the same bump they’d hit last night. The one that knocked Mikey’s balloon into the mutagen tracker. Donnie had been courteous enough to give April his chair so she wouldn’t have to stand, so he almost toppled over when he heard the mutagen tracker go haywire as soon as they hit the bump.

“Holy smokes! I’m getting a huge energy signal, coming from right where we crashed. We must’ve missed it last night when the tracker shorted out.” The turtles immediately became active, grabbing their weapons and heading for the side door.

Ding dong.

They stepped out, taking in the surroundings. The reading they were getting was much larger than what was normal for a single canister of mutagen. That meant that what they were picking up was either multiple canisters, or a Kraang base. All bets were on the Kraang base idea.

“April,” Leo said. “Do you think you can figure out how to drive the Shellraiser in case we need a quick getaway?” April pouted slightly, but she didn’t want to argue with him now, so she went over and sat in the driver’s seat. After spending a few seconds messing with the controls she nodded her head.

“Yeah, just give me a call.” Leo nodded and the turtles all headed out into the night. After they left, April got out to check on the gas leak. As she was crawling around on the pavement, she noticed a small red cap. Further inspection showed it was the same cap they’d originally went out for. She filled the tank back up, and screwed the cap on. Donnie could thank her for it later.

Inside the Kraang base, shadows slipped around in the rafters. It was actually an old building, practically falling apart on the outside, but Kraangy on the inside. The walls were lined with the typical silver metal with purple lights pulsing from tubes that ran parallel to each other. The ceiling however was still the same, and it was all too perfect for Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo to hide in. The Kraang human suits walked around below them, each group in perfect formation. They all seemed to be heading out of the same room. All Leo could see of his brothers were their white eyes.

“Donnie, what’s you’re tracker say.” His lips barely moved as he spoke. Donnie looked down at the device in his hands.

“I think it’s in the room that they’re all leaving,” he replied quietly.

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go stop whatever alien experiment they’ve got going on, and then get out of here,” Raph barked softly. Mikey nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright team,” Leo started. “Here’s the plan… And their gone already.” Leo let out a heavy sigh before following after his brothers. Inside the room was completely dark. Good news was that there weren’t any Kraang around. He heard Raph muttering and fumbling around before there was a soft click, and the lights came on. The inside was the room was normal. Normal for the Kraang anyways. It looked like the communication room for this particular base.

“Donnie, I thought you said the readings were coming from in here?”

“Well Raph, I did. And that’s what it still says. Look for yourself.” All four turtles huddled around the mutagen tracker. It said they were exactly where they were supposed to be.

“Whoa,” Mikey said. “It’s like we’re standing on it or something.”

“Mikey,” Raph replied. “You, my brother, are a genius.” With a yell, he stabbed his Sais into the ground. When he pulled back, they could see an eerie green light filtering through the two holes. They four looked at each other, then the holes, and then back at each other. Leo spoke first.

“Okay, so how do we get down there?”

“I could just rip up the floor,” Raph quipped. “Not like it would attract the Kraang-bots or anything.” Leo rolled his eyes at his brother’s snide comment.

“Donnie, do you have any ideas?”

“No idea.” Donnie scratched his head. “There aren’t any switches or levers anywhere.” While Leo, Donnie, and Raph were all talking strategy, they’d failed to notice Mikey, who was playing with the floating dots on the screen that wrapped around the large communication orb in the center of the room. He was furiously trying to move the dots into a likeness of a cat wrestling a bear, when they all heard a hissing noise. A portion of the floor slid down until it created a ramp that went onto the basement. They all stared –open mouthed- at their orange-clad brother. Mikey looked as shocked as they did.

“I’m taking cred for that,” he blurted. “Who wants to go first?” Wordlessly, the turtles went back into ninja mode, their irises disappearing into seas of white. The lights in the communication room flicked off with a move of Raph’s hand against the wall, and they disappeared down the ramp.

“What. The. Shell,” Raph breathed. Inside the basement was a large canister that looked like it should be holding mutagen, only it wasn’t. It was holding a girl, with white hair, who was suspended in a clear liquid solution. Three tubes that led into the canister were connected to her. Her hair reached down to her calves, and was obscuring her face from their line of sight. Her body posture and her slow breathing suggested that she was in some form of a state of sleep. Donnie took a step forward to examine the tubes that led into her body. One tube was feeding her mutagen, and the other two were pumping two different kinds of blood.

“This is… Strange.” He muttered, walking around the container. Mikey poked the glass, but she didn’t respond. Leo felt his way around with Donnie.

“Alright, how are we getting her out?”

“Raph are you nuts!?” Leo responded. “We don’t know who she is… Or what she is! What if she tries to attack us,” he looked at Donnie. “Or April?” Donnie stiffened slightly at the Leo’s last comment.

“Well, we’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Mikey piped up. “We can’t just leave her here. Who knows what they’ll use her for.” Donnie agreed reluctantly.

“Whatever she is, I’d rather have her on our side, instead of the Kraang’s. I mean, what if this a project that they’re doing for the Shredder?”

“Good point,” Leo replied. “We need to do this quickly and silently.”

“Got it,” Mikey nodded. “Full ninja mode.” Mikey made a big deal of waving his flattened hands in front of him and sneaking around on his tip toes. It would’ve been amusing too, if it hadn’t been for the fact that he was heading right for the IV feeding the mystery girl mutagen.

“Mikey watch out!” Donnie cried but he was too late. Mikey tripped –gracefully of course- over the tube a managed to tug it hard enough to pull it out of her arm. Red lights flashed and alarms sounded as the liquid drained out of the canister. Kraang-bots filed down the ramp and into the room, guns in hand.

“Nice going Mikey!” Leo yelled and he slashed at a robot with his Katanas. The bot fell, and the little brain-alien ran away, squealing. Behind him, the canister was completely empty, and a circular door opened on the bottom, spitting the girl onto the floor. Mikey pulled out his Nunchakus, and started them up like fans around him, much like Donnie was doing currently with his Bo.

“Taste my hot nunchuck fury!” Mikey yelled as he started hitting at the Kraang. Raph jumped up from behind him and drove his Sais into the robots’ heads.

“These guys are way too easy,” he laughed as he took out the rest of the line up in front of Mikey. He turned around just in time to see Donnie take out the last of the fleet of Kraang-bots.

“I had them Raph!” Mikey complained.

“Yeah, well I had them first.”

“I saw them first!”

“I… “

“As fun as it is to take out these alien freaks, we need to hurry up and get out of here before more of them show up,” Leo said, doing his best to sound leader-y. Mikey went over and squatted next to the girl, who was still unconscious on the ground. When he’d knocked out the mutagen tube, both of the blood tubes had automatically popped off too. Much like when the Kraang had done with April and the April clones a month before, she was dressed in a cream colored one piece. She wasn’t responding to anything the smallest turtle did.

“She is out. I wish I could sleep like that,” he muttered mostly to himself. Leo looked at Donnie.

“Call your girlfriend and tell her we’re on our way.” Donnie grumbled as he dialed in her number.

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Raph, can you grab her?” Raph nodded and went over to the girl and pulled her up by her arms. He held her wrists together just under his neck and let the rest of her body drape over his carapace. Her toes were only about two inches from the ground, but she couldn’t have weighed more than 100 pounds. Raph followed his brothers back to ground level and out the door, where April already had the Shellraiser waiting. They all piled in, and Leo took back the driver’s seat.

“Is that a girl?” April asked, pointing to the heap of white hair on the floor.

“Yeah,” Donnie replied as he went around checking her vitals. Leo was hauling through the city. He wanted off the streets as soon as possible, and to Master Splinter. He would know what to do about this girl.

“Where’d you get her?” April was peering on her tip-toes over Donatello’s shoulder. Mikey jumped up and started waving his hands dramatically.

“She’s some sort of Kraang experiment. She was in this big glass container with tubes of blood and mutagen around her and I released and she was heroically saved by yours truly! That’s what I’m telling her when she wakes up. Then she’ll be on our side and not some sort of evil minion.” Mikey finished with a huge grin on his face.

“Mutagen?” she inquired. “So she’s a mutant… But what kind of mutant? Besides the hair, I don’t see anything non-human about her?” No sooner had the words left April’s lips when they girl rolled onto her back, releasing a small sleep-moan. As her hair shifted, she noticed that her ears were missing. April leaned forward and felt around her head. Two, chocolate brown, dog ears popped up at the same time a matching tail ripped out from the back of her onesie. Her mouth hung slightly open, and staring right at them was a pearly, white, fang.

☯

 

Master Splinter walked into Donnie’s lab with his eyebrows raised. His smartest son had told him there was something he needed to see, but he hadn’t been expecting this, a girl, of all things.

“Look at her dog ears,” Mikey said, reaching out to touch one. April slapped his hand away before he could get too close.

“Not dog,” Splinter corrected. “Wolf. They are much too large to be anything else.”

“The Kraang mutated her,” Donnie said. “They must’ve had wolf blood in one of the tubes, but I still have no idea what was in the other one.” Splinter turned to Leo for an explanation, and he quickly recounted everything that’d happened up until this point.

“Do you have any idea what they were going to use her for? Why they were mutating her?”

“Not a clue,” Donnie replied. “How does she still look human? Besides the obvious reasons. Most mutations we see take on a demented for of an animal, with the human’s personality.” Splinter walked up and carefully examined the girl, mindful not to touch her for long periods of time. He stiffened and his eyes widened slightly, but he quickly regained his posture. Before anyone could ask him about it, he started walking towards the door.

“She will be waking up shortly. I suggest that you don’t do anything to anger her.”

“Nghh…” The girl slowly opened her eyes. She looked like she was still half asleep. Well, that was until she discovered that her wrists and ankles had been locked onto Donnie’s examining table.

“What the hell?” she screeched. Her eyes flew around wildly, and they noticed that as she looked at each one of them, her eyes took on whatever color their eyes were. Finally her eyes fell on April’s, and the sky-blue color blossomed around her pupils and stayed that way for a moment, before swirling back into a mixture of colors. “Where am I?” she asked, only looking at April.

“You’re in New York,” April said, deciding that now might not be the best time to tell her that she was in a sewer. “Do you remember anything that happened to you?”

“No, why am I here?” Mikey stepped up from behind April.

“The Kraang were keeping you in this giant tank and then I,” he glanced at the other three turtles’ glaring faces. “My brothers and me saved you.” Mikey made mental note to make sure that she knew he’d done all the hard work. (That’s how he saw it anyways.)

“The Kraang?”

“Ya know, nasty little buggers. About yay-tall,” Raph bent down and held his hand at ankle level. “Look like brains, squeal like pigs when you’re beating the crap out of them.”

“I have no idea what you guys are talking about.” At that moment, her mind seemed to register the fact that she was talking to giant turtles. Talking. April noticed the change in her demeanor, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Look Angel, we can’t help you if you can’t tell us anything,” Raph said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“My name’s not Angel!” she snapped. “Now will someone please be kind enough to get these things off of me?” She wiggled her fingers and toes for emphasis.

“Right sorry,” Donnie said, pushing a button on the table. The locks released with a small hiss, and she sat up.

“Well, then if Angel isn’t your name, what is?” Raph retorted. Her eyes flickered between colors for a moment, and then started swirling once again. Her wolf ears tilted back slightly.

“I… Don’t know. I don’t remember,” she said sheepishly. “But you’re not calling me Angel, that’s for sure.” April laughed. Mikey came up and sat right in her face, and April’s hand tightened on her shoulder. This girl was taking things well considering, and she didn’t want something to happen to change that.

“Can I touch your ears?” he asked suddenly.

“Umm… Can’t you just touch her ears?” she replied, pointing at April.

“Yeah, but she doesn’t have wolf ears.” The girl’s hands shot up to her head, and a horrified look crossed over her face. “But if you’d rather, I’d go for touching the tail too.” All color drained from her face as she reached behind her and grasped the furry appendage. Then, she let out an ear piercing scream that had all of the turtles scrambling to hide inside their shells.

☯

 

Leo walked into the Dojo, still rubbing the place where his ears should’ve been. April had gotten the mystery girl to calm down, and was currently taking her to her house to find her some clothes, and to see if Mr. O’Neil would let her stay with them until they could figure out what to do with her. Master Splinter knew something about this girl. Leo saw it in his face before he’d left the lab. His Sensei was sitting just under the large tree in the center of the room. Splinter sighed when he heard Leo walked in. He knew that he’d want answers about what he’d discovered about the girl in the lab.

“Sensei, I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering…”

“What it is I know about the girl you found tonight?”

“Yeah. That’s pretty much it.” Leo said, not really surprised. “You had this look on your face before you left. It was almost a look… Like you recognized her.” Splinter nodded.

“Not her, per-say. But I believe I know what she is.” He turned and looked at Leonardo. “In that room, we were in the presence of an Ookami.”

 


	2. Please, Call Me Anything but Freak-Eye

“An Ookami?” Donnie asked, pushing away from his desk in the lab.

“Yeah,” Leo responded from the doorway. Raph crossed his arms over his chest.

“What the shell is an Ookami?”

“All Sensei said was ‘For now, all you need to know is that she could be highly dangerous’, then he went into his room to meditate. I’m assuming he’ll tell us more in time. So for now, when April comes back with her, just try to act normal.”

“Define normal,” Raph snorted. Leo chose to ignore his brother’s prodding, and went back into the pit. April said that she’d be over with ‘her’ at around noon. It was 10 o’clock now, so they all had a few hours to waste. Raph came in a few minutes later, and started hitting on his training dummy. Donnie came out of the lab about an hour later, and the three met up with Mikey in the Dojo for training. Raph won again, but that didn’t stop Mikey from demanding a rematch. All four boys were so focused on their training they barely noticed April calling from the living room. Donnie was out there in a flash, soon followed by Mikey. Raph shrugged and followed after them. Leo looked at Master Splinter’s door, hoping that maybe he’d come out and tell him more about this strange girl. Not a single sound came from behind the door, and Leo gave up with a heavy sigh.

In the pit, April was sitting on the couch next to Donnie. The girl was standing awkwardly to the side, flicking her chocolate brown tail back and forth. She was wearing one of April’s yellow jerseys, and pair of shorts, but she’d opted out of wearing the tights and undershirt. Instead of boots, like April, she had on a pair of beat up looking converse. Mikey sat down next to Donne, his eyes following the girl’s tail. He still hadn’t given up on wanting to touch it.

“Nice to see you again, Angel.” Raph said, clapping a hand on her shoulder before sitting in his bean bag chair. Her eyes flashed red.

“That’s not my name,” she bit out. April looked over at her, noting her posture and red eyes. Raph opened his mouth to make another smart-ass remark, but April cut him off.

“Then we should give you one,” April said. Mikey clapped his hands together. He slid his arm around the girl’s shoulder.

“Your naming is in good hands,” he said. “I’m a professional.”

“Mikey,” Donnie started. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“Nonsense bro. I got this.” He circled around her, lifting up one arm and then the other, making careful note of her claws. A low rumble started in her chest and her ears turned back slightly. Donnie recognized this as the warning signs of building anger in any canine species.

“Mikey, maybe we should just go ask Master Splinter,” he suggested, moving to drag Mikey away. Mikey brushed him off and stood squarely in front of the girl. As he looked into her eyes, they filled with a mix of orange and baby blue.

“I got it!” Mikey said, snapping his fingers. “Freak-Eye.”

“Excuse me?” she asked, fisting up her hands.

“Well,” Mikey explained. “You’re eyes are all like, swirling colors. And then something happens and it changes. Kina freaky.” Her cheeks flushed a light pink and reached up to touch the skin under and around her eyes.

“They do?” she asked, slightly nervous. April crossed her arms and put on her best stubborn-face.

“We’re not going to call her Freak-Eye, Mikey.”

“But it’s so perfect!” Mikey pleaded. Donnie shook his head.

“Mikey, I don’t think…”

“No!” April said firmly. “She’s not Bradford or Xever. She should have a say in what we call her.” She turned to the girl. “Honestly, do you want to be called Freak-Eye?”

“Um… No. I’d take Angel over that name…” She saw the sad look on Mikey’s face and immediately felt bad. “Sorry Michelangelo.” April had spent a good hour explaining which turtle was which. Leonardo was the –rarely listened to- leader, who wore a blue mask. He was obsessed with Space Heroes, and more recently, Super Robo Meca Force 5. Next up was Donatello. He wore a purple mask, and was a technology guru. He built their phones, a robot turtle named Metal Head, and he’d even fixed up a subway car that they called the Shellraiser. Then there was Raphael. He was the group’s hot-head and muscle. He wore a red mask. Last, and certainly not least, was Michelangelo who wore an orange mask. He was a prankster, and the official “namer-of-things-that-mutated”. He would eat pizza off a Central Park bench if you’d let him.

Raph smirked from his seat on the floor. “So, Angel it is then.” Her eyes were slowly turning red again. She’d said that to make a point, not to give Raphael permission to call her that. “What? It’s your best option so far.” Leo stepped in.

“How about taking a break from this before someone gets their head torn off, namely Raph,” he suggested. Sensei said she could be dangerous, and she looked pretty dangerous with her ears folded back and her eyes burning red. She almost jumped at the sound of his voice, but threw him a grateful look as April dragged her into the dojo.

“You’ve gotta see this place,” April gushed, pulling her into the room. There were oriental rugs covering the floor, weapons on the walls, and… A tree growing out of the center of the room.

“Woah, how’d they even get a tree down here?”

“You do not want to know,” an unknown male voice said.

“Master Splinter,” April bowed in greeting, and the giant mutant rat bowed back, then turned towards the white-haired girl next to her.

“It is good to see you conscious, Hitomi.”

“What’d you call me?” she managed to stammer.

“Hitomi. I could hear my sons arguing over what to call you,” he responded. She contemplated over her newly given name.

“Hitomi?” she said to herself. It rang in her head. It sounded right. It was right. “It’s definitely better than Angel… Or Freak-Eye.”

“Awesome! So Hitomi, want to go to Mr. Murakami’s for some pizza-gyoza?” April asked, pleased that she had something to call the wolf-mutant now. She’d had to go all night just saying “Hey” to Hitomi and “The girl” to her dad.

“What’s pizza-gyoza?” Hitomi asked, cocking her head to the side. One ear flopped over in the process, giving her a curious puppy look.

“It’s gyoza with pizza ingredients in it. Trust me, you’ll love it. First we’ll stop by the mall, and get you some clothes of your own,” she added as an afterthought. “You can keep those shorts though, since I had to cut a hole in the back.” Hitomi turned to look at her backside, shuddering when her tail moved on her command.

“Umm. How do I explain the tail and ears in public?” Hitomi asked. April cupped her chin in her hand, contemplating. Master Splinter placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Casey will be over soon. Why don’t you wait for him before you leave?” As soon as he had finished his sentence, he was gone. They heard the door to his room click shut.

“Who’s Casey?” Hitomi asked.

“Don’t worry,” April said. “He’s a friend. He won’t judge you or anything if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“How did you know I was worried?”

“I just got a feeling,” April replied, shrugging. The white background in Hitomi’s eyes shifted to a milky-green, but the other colors continued to mix in front of it.

“Do you get feelings a lot?”

“It’s a long story.”

☯

“What do you mean, you lost her?” Shredder growled, glaring down the blue Kraang bot in front of him.

“Kraang encountered problems that Kraang did not expect to encounter. The ones called The Turtles found us in the place where we were not supposed to be found.” The alien replied.

“YOU LET THE TURLTES ESCAPE WITH HER?!” The Shredder rose to his feet, unsheathing his Tekkō-kagi. In one swift movement, he drove the three blades into the middle of the Kraang. The little brain squeed as one of the blades dug into his forehead. Shredder flung the lifeless bot to the floor.

“Bradford, Xever,” he said, turning to the dog and fish mutants. “Find her… NOW!”

 

☯

“So,” Casey started, eyeing Hitomi, who was sitting on the floor in front of him. Her tail was in her lap, and she was tugging on it nervously. April smacked him on the back of the head.

“You’re being rude, don’t gawk.”

“I’m not… It just, she looks so human. Except for the eyes, they’re pretty freaky.”

“SEE?!” Mikey yelled. “We should go with Freak-Eye.”

“Shut it Mikey,” Raph grumbled from his beanbag. Hitomi stared at the watermarks on the floor, trying to make shapes out of the stains. There was a rabbit, a cat… Oh look! A unicorn.

“So, what’re you going to do now?” Casey finally asked her. Hitomi’s eyes snapped up and she cleared her throat.

“Well, I hadn’t really thought about it.”

“How’re you going to explain this to your family?”

“About that, I don’t remember anything. I didn’t even have a name up until a few minutes ago.”

“Wow, I really don’t know how to respond to that. I’m sorry.”

“Woah woah woah. Hold up,” Mikey said, standing and moving his hands dramatically. “You named her?” This question was directed at April.

“Master Splinter did,” she replied. “He just came out and called her Hitomi.”

“That’s a Japanese name typically given to girls with beautiful eyes,” Donnie commented.

“So it’s basically the Japanese version of Freak-Eye?” Mikey asked.

“Well, not necessarily…”

“I’m still claiming that.” He turned towards Hitomi. “I shall call you Hitomi!”

“Hey Mikey?”

“Yeah Raph?”

“SHUT UP.” Raph hit Mikey on the back of the head. The orange-clad turtle proceeded to pout and whine about how he was going to have a headache for the rest of the day now.

“Hitomi and I were going to go shopping,” April said. “And then over to Mr. Murakami’s afterwards. The only problem is how do we hide her ears and tail?”

“You could just leave the tail,” Casey said, standing up. “As long as you don’t move it, people might just think that it’s one of those fake ones that everyone’s wearing now.”

“Alright, but what about her ears? You can’t really… Explain…” April’s sentence died in her throat as she squinted at Casey, contemplating.

“What’re you looking at Red?” he asked, grinning. Maybe she’d finally realized that he was way cooler than that geeky turtle, Donatello. Donatello too was watching April’s gaze, wondering what could possibly be going on in her head.

“Take off your bandana.”

“What?”

“Casey, take off your bandana,” April demanded, pointing to the folded, black and white bandana on Casey’s head.

“No way,” Casey said, taking a step back. April got that fiery look in her eyes that said she wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

“Casey Jones you give me that right now.”

“Come and get it!” Casey said, taking off. April immediately jumped up. She caught up with him easily enough, now she just had to get him down and take the bandana. She decided to make a leap for it, but Casey anticipated her move, and turned, putting his hands in front of him to push her away when she jumped. It would have worked perfectly, if it hadn’t been for the body that came barreling at him from the side. He was on the ground in less than a second, then yanked up and pinned against the nearest wall just as quickly. A hand was just at the base of his throat, tilting it up at an almost painful angle. He forced his eyes down far enough to see coal black eyes partially hidden by stark white hair glaring up at him.

Hitomi had Casey pinned to the wall. Despite the fact that he had a good 4 inches on her, the tips of his shoes were barely touching the ground, and he could hear himself running out of air. Over to the side, Donnie was helping April up. She’d fallen pretty hard, considering that she was counting on Casey to break her fall. Casey tried to move, but Hitomi just growled and snapped elongated fangs at his exposed throat. He could see Raph move behind her in the background, Sais out.

“Put him down Angel,” Raph said. “I don’t wanna hurt ya, but I will if I have to.” Hitomi’s eyes flickered, and she dropped Casey as she fell to her knees, shaking. She was holding her face in her hands, and her thick white hair blocked her profile from view. Casey was on the floor next to her, gasping.

“What the hell?” he croaked, throwing an icy glare at Hitomi that she couldn’t see. Raph held out a hand to help him up.

“You alright Casey?”

“Yeah, I think so,” he said, rubbing his throat where Hitomi’s hands had been before. “What was that?” he asked her.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled. April was sitting next to her now. “Casey, I’m so sorry. I just, saw your hands like you were going to hit April. I don’t know what happened. After that I was holding you by the throat.”

“You were going to hit her?!” Donnie said angrily from the background.

“Of course not! But I wasn’t about to let her tackle me either.” Casey looked over at Hitomi. She was looking back at him with pleading, dark brown eyes. Her ears were tilted back in shame.

“Don’t worry about it. Things happen right?” he responded. “Here,” he handed April his bandana. “I don’t know why you’d want that old thing anyways.”

“It’s perfect,” April said, looking at Hitomi. She reached up and placed the flat side of the bandana under her hair at the base of her neck and brought it up the side of her head, tying at the top to make a little bow-like knot. Her ears were tucked safely inside the bandana, and the place where her human ears should’ve been was also hidden. “Looks good.”

“Everything’s muffled,” she said, scrunching up her features. She walked over to the pool in the back of the pit and stared down at her refection. April’s face appeared next to hers.

“Time to shop.”

\---

“Everyone’s staring,” Hitomi muttered as they walked down the street, shopping bags in hand.

“You’re just being self-conscious. Then again, your eyes are ever-changing and your hair… Do you think we should try to dye it? Maybe even cut it. Oh, here’s Mr. Murakami’s,” April said, walking up to the machine outside. She hit a button with a little pizza on it, and the machine spit out a tile carrying the same symbol. She went through this process again, and handed Hitomi the tile.

“What’s this for?” she asked, rolling the wood block around in her hand.

“Oh, it’s how you order. Mr. Murakami is blind, but he’s a great cook. He knows about the guys, being turtles and all,” she replied as they walked through the door. A pudgy, older man wearing glasses and a white smock stood behind the counter. He smiled as they entered.

“April, you’ve brought a friend,” he said as he took the tiles from the girls.

“Mr. Murakami, Hitomi. Hitomi, Mr. Murakami.”

“Nice to meet you,” Hitomi said as she took a seat at the bar. April took a seat next to her, and they talked while they were waiting for their food, mostly girl stuff. Since April really only had her dad, and all of her friends were boys (minus Irma, but she couldn’t really talk to her about everything), she never really got to go shopping, or talk like this. It was always science, fighting, or sports.

“So, what’s with you and Donatello?” Hitomi asked, giving April what would soon become her infamous devil-grin.

“What’re you saying?” April said, blushing slightly.

“I don’t know, he seems awfully protective of you. He was practically drenching the air with testosterone when he saw you looking at Casey,” she laughed, waving her hand in front of her nose.

“… You can smell that?” April asked.

“Yeah… Well I don’t know if that’s exactly what it was, but it screamed ‘back off she’s mine’. So, is there something going on there?”

“I mean, I probably get along with him the best out of all of them, but I’ve never seen him like that.” April shrugged her shoulders. Mr. Murakami put two rectangle plates filled with pizza-gyoza. April, glad for the distraction, grabbed her chopsticks and shoved a dumpling into her mouth. Hitomi glared at her. She wasn’t done talking about this yet. She sat there, with one chopstick in each hand. After studying April, she got the right hold, and went to pick up her dumpling. The chopsticks twisted around and the food fell back to the plate with a smack. She tried three more times, all with the same results.

“Screw this,” she muttered. Frustrated with the Asian eating utensils, she just went in with her fingers. She popped a gyoza into her mouth. “Ermagerd. This is amazing.” The rest was quickly wolfed down, no pun intended.

“It’s good huh? Maybe I should get a to-go order and take it to the guys.”

“Or we could accidentally eat them ourselves on the way up.”

“Mr. Murakami, could we get a doggy bag?” April asked, trying not to laugh. He made up the to-go order and April paid, making sure she was the one carrying the bag. Hitomi actually whined on the way back, to which April practically burst with laughter. She uncovered a manhole and climbed down, Hitomi following.

☯

“I still think we should tell Sensei what happened,” Leo said, looking at Raph gravely.

“I’m not going to stop you if you do, but it’s not like she meant to. Even I could see that. And, as you’ve all told me many times, I’m not the world’s most reasonable guy.”

“She was just protecting April,” Donnie put in.

“From nothing,” Casey said indignantly. Mikey looked up.

“Sensei hasn’t exactly been entirely honest with us. Maybe we should do the same back. We don’t tell him until he tells us.”

“Did you really whine just now?” April’s voice came floating into the entrance. The guys immediately all tried to look casual about things.

“I’m hungry.”

“You just ate!” April exclaimed, walking through the turnstile at what could be considered their front door. Hitomi opted to the throw one leg over it and then the other. “Hey guys, we brought back some pizza-gyoza for you.”

“YOU’RE THE BEST!” Mikey yelled, hugging April practically until she was turning blue. And she would’ve, if Hitomi hadn’t have growled at him. He dropped her and patted her shoulder. “Sorry Ape.”

“It’s… Okay…” April huffed, holding out the brown paper bag. “It’s going to be dark soon. Me and Hitomi are going to head back to my place now. We just thought we’d bring you dinner first. Tell Master Splinter bye for us.”

“Bye,” Hitomi said as she followed April outside.

Despite the fact it was the beginning of May the night air was chilly against their skin. April rubbed her arms, and Hitomi’s breath came out in heavy puffs of condensation.

“Wow, its spring and almost below freezing. Thanks a lot New York,” April grumped. Hitomi laughed, and resumed shivering. Was it really this late already? Suddenly, April stopped, putting her arm in front of Hitomi to stop her as well.

“Someone’s following us.”

“So,” a dark voice rang out from a dark alley. “You do have natural sensing abilities.”

“Normally, I’d love to ‘interrogate’ the secrets out of you, but we’re only here for her,” a seconded, slightly accented voice joined in. The way he said interrogate, plus the sound of his knife flipping around in his fishy hand, made April shudder. Bradford and Xever stepped out of the shadows.

“Woah. Aren’t you two bundles full of ugly,” Hitomi snickered. Xever (aka Fishface) hissed and held his knives at the ready.

“Despite what the Shredder’s orders are, I am not opposed to accidentally slicing your throat.”

“We’ll see about that,” April said, crouching and pulling out her Tessen. The metal around the Hamato clan symbol shined in the moonlight. Bradford (aka Rahzar) grinned as his claws lengthened and the spikes on his back and arms stood up. Hitomi snarled. Her nails also grew in length, along with her fangs.

“Look, all we want is her,” Rahzar said, pointing to Hitomi. Hitomi smirked at him, causing an elongated fang to poke out onto her lip.

“Then come and get me.”

 

☯


	3. Down in the Sewers

Master Splinter walked into the living room, finding all of his sons –and Casey- piled around the television.

“Where are April and Hitomi?” he asked. Raphael looked up.

“They just left.”

“They told us to say bye to you,” Mikey added. “So bye.”

“Why?” Leo asked. “You aren’t worried about April being alone with her are you?”

“Yes actually I am. One of you should have gone with them. We still do not know why the Kraang were creating Hitomi the way she is. They could want her back.” He stopped to pull on his beard. “Although I have been training April, I do not know if she would be able to hold them off on her own, as I am not aware of Hitomi’s abilities.”

“According to my calculations,” Donnie said, drawing invisible equations in the air, “they should be walking in the door right now. Why don’t I call April, and from now on one of us will go with them anywhere after dark.” He pulled out his phone and held down his speed-dial for April’s number. The phone rang 5 times, and then went to voicemail. “No answer…” Raph was already up, putting his Sais in his belt.

“Let’s go.”

☯

“Is your phone really ringing right now?” Hitomi asked, barely jumping out of the way of Rahzar’s claws. April could feel her T-Phone going off in her back pocket. She groaned inwardly as she swiped Fishface’s knives away from him with her Tessen.

“Yes. Great timing, I know.”

“Well aren’t you,” Hitomi leapt up and jumped off of the mutant werewolf’s back, landing on her feet on the other side. “Going to answer it?”

“It just went to voicemail. Maybe it was one of the guys, and now they’ll come and help.”

“That would be nice,” Hitomi answered. With a yell she threw her claws at Rahzar’s face, aiming for the eyes. He reared back and let out a guttural cry.

“You’ll pay for that!” he roared. In his momentary blindness, he was stumbling back towards April.

“April!” Hitomi knew that even running she wouldn’t be fast enough to knock April out of the way of the beast’s incoming foot. Luckily, someone else was closer. Leonardo jumped off of a roof and onto Rahzar’s head, twisting it and forcing him to go a different way. Donnie grabbed April and jumped to the side. Hitomi had been so focused on what was happening to April, she’d lost track of Fishface. With a dark chuckle, he drove one of his knives into her back. She hissed in pain and swung around to fight him off, only to find Raph had already done the job for her. Mikey landed next to her along with Casey.

“You alright dude… dudett?” Mikey asked, swinging his chucks in front of him. Leo jumped off of Rahzar and prepared to attack.

“The knife is still in,” Casey said, starting to reach for it.

“Leave it in!” Hitomi yelled, turning to face him. Xever picked himself up and shook his head. He threw a look and Rahzar, and they both nodded. As quickly as they had come, they were gone.

“Oh my gosh,” April said, running up. “You’re hurt.” Hitomi kept twisting her head around to look at where she’d been stabbed. Raph was still holding a Sai defensively.

“We need to leave.”

“April’s place is closer,” Donnie said. “I-if that’s okay with you April.”

“Yeah. Yeah let’s go.” April was too busy watching the back of her jersey being stained red. Although Hitomi’s movements were slow, they still reached April’s apartment window in less time than it would have taken them to make it back to the lair. Hitomi sat down on her knees in the middle of April’s room. Someone turned on the lights. April’s room was simple. The walls were a soft yellow color, and the floor was plush white. Her bed was baby blue, and there were a few posters and decorations throughout.

“The knife isn’t that big,” Donnie commented looking at Hitomi’s back. “So I don’t think it cut any deeper than the skin and muscles.” It was located on the left side, right below the bottom of her ribcage, millimeters away from her spine. Anymore to the right or up, and this little scratch could’ve been way worse.

“Good. Get the damn thing out then,” Hitomi growled, closing her eyes.

“Pulling out in three, two, and one.” Donnie yanked back, grunting in time with Hitomi. Her eyes flew open, revealing them to be a light grey color. One side of her mouth was twisted up slightly, but she showed no other reactions than that. April came back in with a first-aid kit, and gently lifted the back of her shirt. The blood around the wound was dark and rich, and… Clotting already? The knife had only been removed seconds ago. There should still be something coming out. Nope. Completely dry now. She looked up at Donnie, who seemed just as confused as she was.

“What’s going on back there?” Hitomi asked. She wasn’t exactly happy about her backside being shown off to the world.

“Should I still clean it? Bandage it?” April asked Donnie. “It’s not bleeding.”

“I would just wipe it off and bandage it. I wouldn’t try to clean it out, or it might start bleeding.” April nodded and did as he said.

“Hitomi?”

“Hmm?” Hitomi’s eyes were closed now. Just because it wasn’t bleeding didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

“You might wanna go change your shirt. Here,” she handed her a bag that was sitting on her desk. Hitomi nodded and walked down the hallway and into the bathroom.

“Why were you two nerds freaking out?” Raph asked once she was gone.

“Didn’t you hear April?” Donnie threw his hands up. “She’s stopped bleeding. That means she's healing already.”

“And?”

“Normally, a wound like that would’ve at least bled some when the penetrating object was removed.”

“English please,” Mikey reminded.

“Her scratch should have bled when I took out the knife.”

“Thank you.”

“So what does that mean?” April asked.

“It could be a sign of accelerated healing.”

“How cool would that be?” Mikey said, fisting up his hands under his face. “We could get beat up, and be totally okay afterwards.”

“On another note, why were Bradford and Xever going after you and Hitomi?” Donnie asked.

“Actually, they were just after Hitomi,” April said, looking at her door, waiting for Hitomi to walk in.

“What do you mean they were after Hitomi?” Leo asked, standing up.

“Yeah, that’s what the ugly one said,” Hitomi said. She was leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed over her maroon colored tank top. Her white hair was pulled back into a pony-tail, Casey’s bandana removed. She walked over and handed it back to him, before taking a seat on April’s bed. She crossed her legs, clad in grey sweat pant shorts. “Well, they were both ugly now that I think about it.”

“Guys, this is serious. Whatever you were made for, it involved the Shredder, and still does. He must’ve sent Bradford and Xever to bring you back to him,” Leo said, pacing back and forth. “It’s not safe for you anymore. If Shredder gets ahold of you, I don’t even want to think about it.” April groaned and plopped down next to Hitomi.

“I suppose this means another sleepover, doesn’t it?” she asked, sounding less than thrilled.

“Don’t look so down Red, you’ll have Blondie over here to keep you company,” Casey said, grinning.

“Hold up. What are you guys talking about?” Hitomi asked, perking her ears forward.

“When I first met the guys, things got too dangerous with the Kraang, and I had to live with them. For like, a month.”

“In the sewers?”

 

 

“Yup.” April answered, popping the ‘p’. Hitomi’s face scrunched up and her ears flattened.

 

“Gross.”

 

“Eh, the smell kina grows on you after a few days of being down there,” April shrugged. Mikey clapped his hands together.

 

“Pizza par-tay!” he yelled. Hitomi responded by throwing herself next to April face-down.

 

“You guys are leaving out one big thing,” Raph said, playing with a Sai boredly. “What’s Sensei going to say about this?”

 

“Well, it was his idea the first time April had to stay with us,” Donnie said, picking up his Bo and heading towards the window. “I say we go now.”

 

“What about my dad?” April said. “I can’t just disappear. Plus, finals are next week. I can’t just jip out. Not if I want to move up next year.”

 

“Honestly,” Leo said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “It’s only Hitomi who needs to stay with us. You could stay with your dad, go to school, hang with us after, and repeat.”

 

“Bradford and Xever could still be out there though. Maybe you guys should just stay here tonight, and leave in the morning, before the sun comes up,” April pleaded. Sending Hitomi away just seemed wrong to her. They still didn’t know much about her, and holing her up in the sewers could possibly be disastrous.

 

“Y-your dad’s okay with that?” Donnie stuttered. He didn’t like imposing.

 

“Yeah hold on.” April stood and stuck her head out the door. “DAD THERE ARE CRAZED MUTANTS HUNTING FOR MY FRIEND SO THE GUYS ARE GONNA CHILL HERE TONIGHT.” There was a slight pause.

 

“Alright. Don’t stay up too late though. Goodnight,” he replied. They heard a door shut on the other end of the hallway.

 

“So what do you guys wanna do? Now that I think about it, I don’t think you guys have ever actually been anywhere here besides my room.” Hitomi sat up and grinned.

 

“Scary movie marathon.”

 

☯

 

Mikey jolted as the ax murder jumped out of the closet. He ran up to ‘that one dumb girl that always goes upstairs’, and hacked her head right off.

 

“Lame,” Raph sighed, crossing his hands behind his head. Hitomi looked up at him and stuck out her tongue defiantly. Donnie and Raph were sitting on the love-seat, with April and Hitomi squished between their legs on the floor. Mikey was on his stomach directly in front of the television, and Leo was sitting in the arm-chair off to side. Casey had opted to go home- albeit reluctantly- when he saw the time.

 

“Mikey’s not going to sleep for a week,” Leo muttered as more blood splattered the screen, a result of another casualty.

 

“Hey I am totally fine,” Mikey said, rolling onto his back so he could be facing them. “As a matter of fact, I’m tired right now.” April and Hitomi seemed to yawn in unison. The girls laughed slightly, before April stood and hit the off button on the bottom of the TV.

 

“I think we should all get some sleep. You guys have to leave at the crack of dawn, and I have school.” Leo stood to stretch, and Hitomi immediately slid into the seat behind him.

 

“What the heck?” he said, swinging around. Hitomi had curled herself into the seat, with her tail twisted around her legs.

 

“That’s her sleeping spot,” April said. “It’s where she slept last night anyways.”

 

“I don’t see how that could be very comfortable,” Donnie pointed out. Hitomi growled and turned in on herself. She resembled a sleeping dog, curled up in its cage. “Must be the canine DNA.”

 

“I’ll just bring out some pillows and blankets,” April said, walking down the hallway. She came back with an armful of pillows and blankets, her own pillow and comforter included.

 

“Why’d you bring your stuff out here?” Leo asked, finally responding after Hitomi’s earlier behavior.

 

“I’d feel weird sleeping in my room by myself when you guys are all out here,” April said, spreading a fluffy pink blanket over Hitomi. She then set her pillow and comforter at the bottom of the arm-chair. “I’ll let you guys fight over who gets the couch,” she yawned, settling down. A chorus of “Goodnight April” was followed by a soft, “Night guys”. Raph ended up muscling Donnie off the couch, while Leo and Mikey set up their own space between the couch and the television. Not the Donatello minded. He set up his own little spot, not too far from April, but not so close that it would be creepy.

 

\---

 

April was up before her alarm went off, so she had it turned off before it could wake up the others. She carefully stepped over the cluster of shells on her floor, and then stopped to take a look. The turtles hadn’t bothered to take their gear or masks off, and at some point during the night, they’d all gravitated towards each other. It was so cute; April unthinkingly pulled out her T-Phone and snapped a picture. She wanted to slap herself in the face when the resulting click caused Raphael to stir. Quickly, she retreated to her room.

 

After she was sure that no one else was awake, she grabbed her clothes and headed into the bathroom.

 

\---

 

Raphael’s eyes snapped open. He could’ve sworn he’d just heard a camera go off, but no one was in sight, and he could hear the shower running down the hall. He shifted his gaze upward, and was quite surprised to see Donnie’s face directly in front of his. He moved his leg forward slightly, and was met with the resistance of Mikey’s head. Said turtle was lying on top of Leo’s shell, and Leo had his legs on Donatello’s side. Raph grumbled and turned to look at the arm-chair, relieved to see that Hitomi was still sleeping, and hadn’t seen their ‘turtle-cuddle-huddle’. Swiftly, he kneed Mikey’s head.

 

“Ow, what the heck Raph?” Mikey yelped, sitting up. The shift in weight distribution caused Leo’s eyes to fly open as well. When Leo moved his legs, the missing warmth they’d brought woke up Donnie. He rubbed a red-brown eye, and yawned.

 

“What time is it?” Leo asked, copying Donnie’s movements.

 

“It’s… Oh gosh we need to go,” Donnie exclaimed after he’d looked out the window. They sky had gone from dark blue to grey, as the moon lowered and the sun rose. “Raph, get Hitomi up.”

 

“Alright,” Raph grumbled. He walked over and poked the pink bundle on the arm-chair, and was met with a direct punch to the face. Raph fell flat on his shell and stayed there, glaring. Hitomi emerged immediately after. A fang was poking out of her slightly open mouth, and her hair was shoved up on one side.

 

“What do you want?” she asked, clearly less than pleased.

 

“We’ve gotta get you back to lair before the sun comes up,” Leo stated, picking up his Katanas.

 

“What is wrong with you?!” Raph yelled, rubbing his jaw. There was a faint, greyish-blue bruise starting to form there, not that he’d tell you if it hurt or not. Hitomi looked confused.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“You punched me. IN THE FACE.”

 

“No I didn’t… Oh.” She looked closer at the forming bruise, and then shrugged. “Quite the improvement if you ask me.”

 

“Why you…”

 

“What’s all the yelling?” April asked, stepping out of the bathroom. Her hair was still damp, so it wasn’t in its usual headband-ponytail duo. Mikey took it upon himself to fill her in.

 

“Hitomi hit Raph when he went to wake her up so we could go back to lair and apparently it’s a huge improvement.”

 

“We don’t have time for this,” Leo chided. “Let’s go guys. See you later April.”

 

“What about my stuff?” Hitomi asked, panicking slightly. She might not remember much, but like many teenage girls, did NOT like having greasy hair, or having to wear the same clothes for days on end.

 

“I’ll bring them over after school,” April offered. Hitomi turned to Leonardo.

 

“You guys have a shower?”

 

“Yes now can we please go?” Hitomi crossed her arms, but went to living room window with the others anyways. “Thank you,” Leo whispered, not meaning for anyone else to hear. Hitomi’s eyes narrowed and snarled at him when she went past. April sighed inwardly, and prayed that the guys (and Hitomi) would make it through the day with minimal casualty.

 

 

☯

 

Hitomi sighed contentedly as she stood in front of the mirror, braiding her still wet hair. As far as sewer living was concerned, The Turtles had a very nice bathroom. It was really two separate rooms conjoined by a small hallway. One room housed the toilet stalls, and the other housed a large shower, with multiple shower-heads, and a bench under each. For obvious reasons, there was no shampoo or conditioner in the showers, so she’d settled for rinsing her hair out with water and pulling it back. Just to make sure, she reached up a pinched a furry ear between her thumb and forefinger. Nope; still wasn’t dreaming. She grabbed the same clothes she’d had on last night, and put them back on before heading out into the lair.

As she hit the living room, she was greeted with the lovely sight of no one being around. She stretched out on the sunken bench, lacing her fingers together on her stomach. For a good hour, Hitomi stayed in complete silence, trying her best to remember anything at all, like Donatello had asked her to do. She could faintly hear the sounds of the boys training with Master Splinter, but it was more of a comfort than a disturbance. This was all real, and she wasn’t alone. That’s what was playing though her mind on repeat when she felt someone’s eyes on her. With a heavy sigh, she sat up to see who it was. It was Michelangelo.

“What do you want Mikey?” When the freckled turtle didn’t respond, she tried again. “What is it?”

“When are you going to let me touch your ears?”

“Umm…” she flattened said ears against her head and looked around to something to save her. Luckily she found just that. Donatello was walking from the Dojo to the lab. “Donnie!” Donnie stopped in his tracks and looked over at Hitomi, who seemed to be stuck between their concrete couch and Mikey.

“Did you remember something?” he asked. Mikey gave up with a disappointed grunt.

“It’s not really something I remembered per-say. It’s something I discovered in the shower.”

“Uh…”

“Ew not that kind of discovery. No it’s this,” she said, holding out her wrist. “I have a tattoo. I guess I just never noticed it before now.” Delicately scribed on the far left of her wrist, facing her was a black treble-cleft, and off of the center, a heart-line squiggled the rest of the way across the skin. “I must’ve been really connected to music somehow.”

“It’s not much, but it’s a start. Do you mind if I run some tests? Then we could figure out your age, and possibly any other defining thing about you. How mutated you are.” Hitomi stood up and followed Donnie to the lab. He patted the metal table she’d been strapped to when she’d first arrived, and gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Hitomi smiled back and sat on the edge of the table. She stayed completely still through the tooth exam. He’d scrape a tooth, and write a number on his board. He pushed against a canine, a molar. When he hit her upper left eye-tooth, she flinched slightly. A few more teeth were sensitive like that one, and he murmured to himself softly.

“You had braces, recently taken off. Spark anything?” he asked, figuring out the problems on his board. Hitomi’s lips formed a hard line as she mulled over the idea of braces in her head.

“Nothing.”

“I figured as much,” he said distractedly. Had he carried that 4? After 5 more minutes of silence, he turned to face her.

“Well, you’re somewhere between the age of 17 and 20. Judging from your facial structure, I’d lean more towards 17 or 18,” he concluded, fairly proud of himself. He’d actually looked up how to judge a person’s age by their teeth two nights before, when she’d been spending the night at April’s.

“17 or 18. Got it. Anything else?”

“Well, now I’d like to extract some blood, and do an x-ray of your internal organs.”

“What about internal organs?” Leo asked, walking in the door, doing a double-take at the equation on Donnie’s board, and then standing next to Hitomi. “He’s not trying to harvest them, is he?” he joked. Hitomi crinkled her nose and shook her head.

“He’d better not,” she joked back. “I might have to de-shell him if he tried.” Donnie rolled his eyes.

“I’m just going to do some x-rays, and take some blood for testing.”

“Well, then by all means continue. Just pretend I’m not even here,” Leo stated, walking around the lab casually.

“Don’t mind me either,” Raph said from the doorway.

“Raph, what’re you doing here?” Donnie asked, slightly annoyed.

“What? Can’t a guy want to see organs on an x-ray?” Raph explained feigning curiosity. In reality, he and Leo were here to protect their nerdy brother. Like Sensei had said earlier, they don’t know her abilities. Her strengths and weaknesses. Her breaking point and what she was capable of doing once she hit it.

“Fine, just don’t touch anything,” was Donatello’s exhausted sounding reply. He’d already had enough of the “A-Team” during training. “Hitomi, blood or x-ray first?”

“Blood,” she answered through gritted teeth. She shifted uncomfortably on the table as he went to go get a needle. Needle. The thought made her shudder, something that Raph and Leo didn’t miss. As Donnie came back, brandishing the thin silver devil, she unconsciously scooted back.

“What’s wrong Angel?” Raph snorted. “Scared of a little pin-prick?” Hitomi barred her teeth, never moving them as she spoke through tight lips.

“Shut up.”

“Raph that’s enough,” Leo warned. They were here to prevent a potential eruption, not instigate one. Raph grumbled, but saw the look in her electric yellow eyes, and settled down in the office chair in front of Donnie’s desk. Donnie tied a tourniquet just above Hitomi’s elbow.

“Do you want me to count to three? Or just…?” She looked like she was about to bolt. She squeezed her eyes shut and gave no response. “I’m just going to do it then. It won’t hurt as much if you relax,” he commented, holding the needle to the skin, but not putting it in yet. Her body relaxed, but her face remained the same. He pushed in the needle, and drew out the thick, dark red, liquid. “All done.”

“Thank God,” Hitomi exhaled, her eyes fading to a softer, pastel version of her previous eye color. Donnie chuckled to himself.

“That didn’t happen to spark anything, did it?”

“I do not like needles,” she stated bluntly.

“Yeah, we all saw that,” Raph muttered. “Really. You took a knife in your back like a champ, and you looked like you were about to pass out just now.”

“Trypanophobia,” Donnie said, setting half of the sample on a slide, and putting the other half into a home-made machine. “Fear of needles. It’s actually fairly common. It’s a fear she shares with about 20% of the human population.”

“Nerd,” Raph snorted, while Leo just nodded his head in understanding. Donnie watched her blood sample through a microscope for a while.

“It’s definitely got mutagen in it. But there’s something else too. I can’t place it.” His machine beeped and a small paper bearing strange numbers came out. “And you have AB- blood. The rarest blood there is. Only 1% of the population has it.”

“You’d think I’d remember something like that.”

“Well it’s more than likely that you never knew in the first place. It’s just information that’s nice to have.” Hitomi pursed her lips and settled for staring at her toes. Now that everything was said and done, she felt really embarrassed about how she’d reacted.

“Sorry. That was… More than uncalled for.”

“Its fine,” Donnie waved a hand as if to wave away her concern. “We all have our fears. Like Raph.”

“Donnie don’t you even start,” Raph warned.

“Never mind then. Okay, last thing for today. Ready?”

“Let’s get this over with.” Hitomi stretched out on the table and closed her eyes. She wasn’t even aware of anything that was going on, until Donatello broke the momentary silence.

“Raph, Leo, come look at this. All of her organs. Her heart, her lungs… They’re at least 2, maybe even 3 times larger than they should be.” This perked Hitomi’s interest. Realizing that the picture on the screen wasn’t on real time, she got up and walked over.

“Is that bad?”

“I wouldn’t say that it was bad. I would like to know what caused this however. If the mutagen doubled your organ size, why didn’t it double your size as well?”

“LEO LEO THE MICROWAVE EXPLODED SOMEONE COME AND SAVE MY PIZZA!”

☯

After putting out the fire in the kitchen, and an extreme scolding by Leo for putting a spoon in the microwave in the first place, the teens went off to do their own thing. Hitomi saw Donnie go back into his lab, probably to try and figure out the mystery of her entrails. Raph grabbed a comic book and sat in his bean-bag chair, while Leo and Mikey started up their game system. Hitomi didn’t really know what to do with herself, so she stretched out on her stomach on the sunken bench. Her head was just behind Raph, so she read over his shoulder. It was a comfortable almost-silence. Occasionally Mikey would accuse Leo of cheating, and a small verbal fight would ensue. The thing that really brought her back to reality was the pinch in her stomach. As soon as she noticed this a rumble erupted from her abdomen. Lunch had kind of been ruined by the whole microwave-on-fire situation.

“When was the last time you ate?” Raphael asked, never looking up from his comic.

“Last night with April at Mr. Murakami’s,” was her sheepish answer.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I don’t know. I guess I didn’t feel comfortable asking for food.”

“Stupid. You’re basically living here now. Unless you plan on starving yourself, learn how to ask for food.” Raph stood up and turned to face her. “Come on then.” Hitomi didn’t appreciate being called stupid, but if he was going to lead her to food, she wasn’t going to argue. When they got to the kitchen, Raph motioned for her to sit down as he rummaged through the fridge.

“Since the microwave’s down for the count, you’re going to have to live with cold pizza,” he said, putting a plate in front of her, and in the spot next to her.

“I could honestly care less about whether my pizza’s cold or not.” The second that pizza hit her plate it was gone. Raph chewed his piece a little slower.

“There’s more in that tub over there,” he said after he’d swallowed. Hitomi nodded and got up nervously to get a second piece. By the time Raphael finished his first piece, she’d gone through 4. Raph watched silently, mulling over what he should say.

“They’re all pretty goofy aren’t they?”

“Who?”

“My brothers. Leo’s all serious. Donnie’s all nerdy. Mikey is… I don’t think weird comes close to what he is. But they mean well.”

“Yeah,” Hitomi agreed, stroking her finger across her tattoo. “I can see that. You’re dad too. I only saw him for a couple of minutes, but he seems like he really loves you. I could feel his fear. He was afraid of me. Afraid of me being around you. I doubt he’d ever say it though. That’s also the reason you and Leo were in there when Donnie was running his tests.” Her ears were tilted down and her voice had gone from understanding to sad. “You were there to make sure I didn’t hurt your brother, like I almost hurt Casey.” She took a shaky breath, and placed her plate in the sink, before walked back into the lair.

“Way to go Raph,” he muttered to himself as he watched her leave. “Way to go.”

\---

April walked in, carrying shopping bags from the day before that were holding Hitomi’s stuff.

“April!” Hitomi said, waving excitedly. “Oh my gosh I thought you’d never get out of school.”

“Glad to see everyone still intact,” April laughed, handing over the bags. “How’s your back?”

“All healed up. See?” Hitomi turned around so April could take a look. The only proof that the knife had ever been there was a thin, white scar.

“That’s amazing. It’s like you have a super-healing power.”

“Apparently, that’s not the only super thing about me. Donnie ran some tests. I guess my organs are huge compared to my body size. He probably still has the x-ray on his computer.”

“I’ll go take a look,” April said, heading towards the lab. Hitomi sat down with her bags and searched through them. Yes! She brought shampoo!

\---

“Leonardo?”

“Yes Sensei?” The blue-clad turtle looked up at Splinter, who was stroking his beard thoughtfully.

“Did everything go okay today?” Leo didn’t have to ask to know that he was referring to Hitomi’s first day in the sewers.

“Everything went fine. She’s deathly afraid of needles though.”

“Donatello’s still running tests?”

“Yes. Her organs are huge, and he kept saying something about her blood. There’s something there that he doesn’t recognize, Kraang or otherwise.” Leo watched Splinter’s reaction through the corner of his eye. His Sensei was hiding something, and this new information must’ve confirmed what he was keeping a secret.

“She knows that she cannot leave the sewers?”

“Not until we know more about her. She wasn’t too happy about it. Sensei, I get the feeling that you’re keeping something from us. You can trust me.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Leonardo. I just do not want to open a door that cannot be closed, especially if my suspicions are incorrect. Tomorrow, I would like you to bring her here for training.”

“Hai Sensei.”

\---

“Here,” Raph said, handing a pile of blankets to Hitomi. April had gone home, and the other turtles had turned in for the night. “I hope the couch is okay. If you have to, use some of the blankets as padding.”

“Thanks Raph,” she said, smiling, and inadvertently showing off her fangs. Raphael had considered offering up his room, but he knew he’d get crap from his brothers if he did. He watched silently as she shoved most of the blankets into the corner of the sunken bench. She backed up into her little blanket nest, pulling the only blanket she’d left out over her, and tucking it against her side, forming a small cocoon. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

☯


	4. A Little Taste of Freedom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitomi finally gets to see NYC

Hitomi woke up, trapped in her blanket cocoon. During the night she must’ve tossed and turned, and ended up wrapping everything around her in the process. She kicked and stretched until she was free, grabbed one of her bags, and headed into the bathroom to shower. Living in the sewers, you built up dirt and grime faster than above ground. She relished in the fact that she now had shampoo, conditioner, and feminine-smelling soap and body wash. 

☯

Mikey got up and went though his normal routine. He took off his underpants (God knows why he wants to wear them in the first place), ate whatever unfortunate piece of pizza was under his bed, grabbed his bath towel, and walked out the door in time to see Leo coming out his door with his own towel. The gave a groggy nod in greeting, and Mikey absent-mindedly followed Leo to the bathroom. The shower was already running when they went into the toilet rooms to do their business, but they figured it was just Raph or Donnie, up and at it before they were. What they weren’t expecting, was to walk in on Hitomi.

“GOOD GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” she screeched, throwing her shampoo bottle at Mikey, who was unfortunate enough to walk into the showers first.  
“AHHH!” Mikey threw his hands over his eyes and managed to run out, but not before smacking into the wall, and Leo, before doing so.  
“What’s going on?” Leo asked, having missed the earlier mishap.  
“Dude, you do not want to go in there,” Mikey replied, still covering his eyes. Just then, Hitomi came storming out of the shower, with a towel clutched around her  
“Mikey, please tell you didn't walk into the shower on her.”  
“I forgot she was here!”  
“What is wrong with you people!” Hitomi cried, using one hand to hold her towel, and throwing the other in the air dramatically.  
“We didn’t know it was you,” Leo tried to explain calmly. She continued to glare at Mikey, despite his placating tone.  
“Sorry bro,” Mikey said, still blushing. Hitomi huffed, but otherwise calmed down.  
“I’m going back into the showers to get dressed. Don’t walk in on me again,” she growled.  
“Wait,” Leo said. Hitomi whipped around.  
“What?” she snapped.  
“Master Splinter wants you to come to training today. So... Wear athletic clothes.” Hitomi nodded and disappeared into the other room.  
“I heard yelling,” Raph said, as Donatello walked past him towards the showers. Hitomi must’ve heard the footsteps coming closer, because out of nowhere she yelled;  
“I'M NAKED IN HERE.” Don immediately stumbled back.  
“If Hitomi was in here already, why are you two?” he asked Mikey and Leo.  
“Well,” Mikey started. “We thought she was you or Raph, so we just kinda, walked in.”  
“He means he walked in. I saw nothing.” Donnie face palmed and Raph snickered.  
“So you walked in on her in the shower? God Mikey we all knew you were stupid...”  
“I wasn’t expecting her!”  
“New rule,” Leo interjected. “Always knock before going into the showers.”  
“Agreed.”  
“Agreed.”  
“Best rule you’ve ever come with bro.”

☯

The boys all sat in line in front of Master Splinter, waiting on Hitomi. After the shower incident this morning, she ran out so fast all they saw of her was a glance of white hair. Splinter had yet to hear of this morning’s adventure, but Mikey had asked Leo some harrowing questions that he had yet to answer. There was the sound of the Dojo door being opened, and whoosh of air as Hitomi ran past and sat down on the end next to Mikey.  
“Ohayō,” Splinter said, pacing in front of the 5 teens. They boys answered back in Japanese, while Hitomi muttered out a soft “morning”. He looked down at her.   
“Stand.” She did as she was told, and fidgeted with her tail nervously. He then turned and addressed some things with Leonardo in Japanese. Hitomi struggled to listen, but he was speaking too fast for her to pick out any specific phrases. Leo rose and stood in front of her, centering his focus. Her chosen outfit wasn’t slutty or anything, but it was distracting enough for a 16 year old boy. Just black, to-the-calf jogging pants and a black sports bra with no shoes.  
“So why am I standing here exactly?” she began.  
“Hajime!” At his Sensei’s command, Leo burst forward, crossing his Katanas in front of him. Hitomi dodged at the last second.  
“What the- Gah!” She couldn’t finish her sentence. Leonardo was relentless in his attacks. It was all she could do to jump out of the way. This brutal exercise lasted for almost a half hour before she’d had enough. Although he hadn’t become sloppy, he’d become predictable enough for her to notice his AABAAC pattern of attack. He’d just stopped his second A attack, and was moving into B. She steeled herself, and instead of running away, she ran right towards him. Her clawed hands latched onto his Katana blades and pried them apart. Then she lifted her legs, using her arms as support on the Katanas, and kicked him square in the chest as she pulled the weapons from his hands. It was enough to send the young ninja sailing back into the wall. Sweaty and panting, Hitomi threw his Katanas to the ground before turning to Splinter.  
“What was that all about?” she huffed  
“Interesting,” Splinter mused, pulling his beard. “It took Raphael 2 years to learn what you learned in 30 minutes.”  
“Hey!” Raph protested.  
“Raphael. Hajime!” Raph looked stunned for a moment, before he saw Hitomi barreling towards him. He jumped over her head and swung an arm into her exposed back. She fell, catching herself with her hands before her face went into the Dojo rugs.   
“Boy, you learn fast,” Raph smirked. She picked herself up and swung out to knock him off his feet. Raph simply continued smirking as he lept over her attack. Hitomi growled and threw herself into a standing position. She and Raph circled around one another, calculating. Both waiting for the other to slip up. As they circled, her irises started bleeding red. She grinned as her tail swooshed behind her in a wide ark. The movement drew the contentious turtle’s attention, and she lunged. Raph had enough sense to latch his hands onto hers, to where they were both pushing against each other’s arms. Her slender fingers were painfully wedged between his thick green ones. He grinned darkly as he continued to add pressure. She gritted her teeth, but made no other movements beside the consistent pushing. Raph, stealing her move from earlier, kicked up the lower half of his body, and planted his feet firmly into her abdomen. She landed roughly on her back, and stayed there, staring at her bruised fingers.  
“Gonna give up?” Raph jeered.  
“You wish,” she hissed, standing again. Their continued fight was ferocious. Neither one was willing to give up. Raphael hated to admit it, but watching her fight was beautiful in a twisted way. It was obvious that she hadn’t had any previous training to go by, just whatever she saw them do. Her fighting style was raw, and purely instinctual. Raph liked it.   
Their fight would’ve continued, if April hadn’t walked in.  
“Hey Spli- What the heck are you guys doing in here?!” April’s voice went up a few octaves as she saw Hitomi’s bloody and bruised hands, along with the layer of sweat that covered every inch of her body. “You’re going to kill her.”  
“Yame!” Splinter said, drawing Raphael back to his spot on the floor between Leo and Donnie. Hitomi bent with her hands on her knees, and took a moment to weeze through some calming breaths. When she lifted her hands, her knees were sticky with blood. She held her hands out in front of her face up, and eyed the twin lacerations on each palm.  
“What’d you do?” April asked, stomping over to look at her hands with her.  
“I grabbed Leo’s sword... and then I fought Raph. Why’s it still bleeding? I thought I was Superman or something. I’m not supposed to be bleeding still... What’re you doing out of school? It's only twelve o’clock.” Hitomi asked. Her voice sounded unfocused and confused.  
“Oh. Someone pulled the fire alarm. All of the ceiling sprinklers went off and theres like 2 inches of water in the whole building. They gave us the day off. How long ago were you grabbing Leo’s swords?”  
“Ummm.... Maybe at like 10:30?”  
“You’ve been fighting Raph for and hour and a half?”  
“Oh wow. Look at that,” Hitomi grinned. Her cheeks were flushed a deep red, and she was still panting.  
“Are okay?” April asked, touching her shoulder, then immediately pulling back. “You’re hot.”  
“Why April, I had no idea you thought that way,” Raph jeered.  
“Raph shut up. Donnie, do you have a thermometer?”  
“Yeah, it’s in the lab. Sensei?”  
“You may go,” Splinter said. “I will be meditating in my room. Training is over for today.  
Michelangelo and Donatello with spar twice tomorrow.” Donnie nodded, and Mikey was asleep at this point, so he would probably find this out tomorrow.  
“Sit down,” April ordered Hitomi. Raph started to leave, but her steel gaze fell on him, and he sat back down. Hitomi flopped on her stomach. It wasn’t technically sitting, but it was close enough. Donnie came back with the thermometer. April handed it to Hitomi, who grunted and stuck it in her mouth. It beeped, and she thrust her hand out without even looking at it, waiting for someone to relay the information to her.  
“You’re going to the hospital right now,” April declared, grabbing Hitomi’s wrist and attempting to drag her out of the Dojo. She got maybe 2 feet, before Raph snorted.  
“Yeah, because the nurses totally won’t question the ears and tail. Or the fact that she’s running 112 degree temperature and still alive.”  
“Raph does have a point,” Donnie said. “Most people are dead before they hit 108. She’s 4 degrees over that and besides being tired and bruised, she’s fine.”  
“How can she be fine if she’s on fire Donnie?” April exclaimed. Hitomi sat up and rubbed her eye.  
“I’m fine. Just gonna go get a drink,” she mumbled, standing. She made her way out of the Dojo, and into the kitchen.  
“Why aren’t you worried about this?” April asked accusingly.  
“Well, if she’s still fighting, why stop her?” Leo casually responded. “If she would’ve passed out during this, we would’ve stopped.” April shook her head and followed after Hitomi. She was lounging out on the floor in front of the television.  
“Hey,” she said, grinning up at the redhead. “I suppose this means that Donatello’s going to want to run more tests?”  
“Probably so. How does it feel to get your butt kicked by Raphael Hamato?”  
“Hey! I almost had him until you came along!”  
“Pffft. Whatever. How’re your hands?” April asked. Hitomi shrugged.  
“They stopped bleeding, but they’re probably be bruised for a while. Raph has little biceps in his fingers. Not even kidding.” The girls laughed and playfully bantered for most of the day, and this was how most days went. They got up, trained, (during training Hitomi’s temperature always skyrocketed), April came over, and the girls kind of isolated themselves and just talked. After April left, the guys went on patrol, and came back to find Hitomi sleeping on the couch nearly every time. One time, she stayed up long enough to play some videogames with Mikey. Hitomi still couldn’t remember anything from her past life. The word Kraang meant nothing to her. 

On her 62nd day underground, she asked the question that they all had been dreading.  
“When can I go outside?”  
“When we figure out more about you,” Donnie replied, shining a light in her eyes. “Pupils are almost completely gone. Can you even tell I’m shining this in your face?”  
“I mean, it’s lighter, but it doesn’t really hurt that much.”  
“Okay. How about when it’s dark. Can you see pretty well in the dark?”  
“Well, I would know better about that if you would let me go on patrol with you guys.”  
“No. Master Splinter will say the same thing I just did.”  
“Come on!” she whined, sitting up and jumping off the table. “Even April gets to go out with you guys.” She batted her eyelashes at him.  
“That won’t work on me ya know. I’m immune to your feminine charms.”  
“Yeah. Because you obsess over April too much to notice.”  
“I-I do not!”  
“Do to.”  
“Do not.”  
“Do to.”  
“Do not!”  
“DO TO!”  
“You know what? Go ask Splinter yourself if you think you’re so ready to go out into the big scary world.”  
“Yes!” She took off into the Dojo and knocked on Splinter’s door. He slid it open and gave her a quizzical look.  
“Yes?”  
“Can I go out with the guys tonight?”  
“No.” Her ears drooped, and she turned to walk away.  
“Yes.”  
“What?” “  
“Yes you may go out. But you may not go on patrol.”  
“Ummm... But they only go out to patrol.”  
“You can go out with them, but if a situation arises where they must fight, then you are to hide, and allow them to take care of it,” Splinter looked down at her. “Is this agreeable with you?”  
“Yeah. But what if they’re getting their butts kicked? Can I help out then?”  
“You are wanted by the Kraang and Shredder. If they are in fact getting their butts kicked, you leave and come get me.”  
“Alrighty then. Thanks Master Splinter.”  
“You are welcome, Hitomi.”

☯

“Alright! Let's go go go go go!” Hitomi was giddy, and bouncing around the lair like a chicken that had recently had it’s head lopped off.   
“Not yet. We aren’t ready,” Leo said, putting his hands on her shoulders to get her to stop. He was getting tired just watching her.  
“Hey guys,” April waved as she jumped over the turnstiles. “Sorry I’m late. Don’t know where Casey is.” She turned to Hitomi. “A little birdy told me that you get to go out tonight,” she sang. Hitomi nodded eagerly.  
“I’m ready to see the stars and moon. It's so dank down here. Need fresh air.”  
“I know why you want to see the moon so bad,” Mikey said.  
“And why is that?”  
“Cause you’re gonna howl at it!”  
“Wouldn’t that blow our cover?” Raph asked, taking one last hit on his dummy, before deciding that he was ready to go.  
“That is so stereotypical!” Hitomi ranted. “Wolves don’t actually howl ‘at the moon’. They howl to communicate with their surrounding pack members or other packs. Sometimes they even howl during the day.”  
“This is true,” Donnie verified, putting his Bo in it’s strap across his back.  
“Are we going now?” Hitomi was just going to continue to annoy them until they left.  
“What about Casey?” Raph asked.  
“Screw Casey, let's go.” Hitomi started walking towards the exit.  
“Well that's just rude,” Mikey muttered.  
“Do you know what he did last week when I was changing in Raph's room? He just walked right in, looking for Raph. He didn’t leave either. He just stood there, the pervert.”  
“Were you naked naked, or like, half naked?” Raph asked.  
“Um half naked, and why do you need to know?” Raph just shrugged.  
“Then look on the bright side. Out of the 2 months you’ve been here, the only one who’s seen you naked naked is Mikey. And the poor kid probably didn’t even know what he was looking at.”  
“Let's just go. He had a game tonight, maybe it went over,” April said, following Hitomi out the door. The four boys followed suit, and soon they were climbing up the nearest fire escape to the top of the building. Well, all of them except Hitomi used the fire escape. She pretty much just scaled up the side of the building. She ran, jumped a third of the way up, dug in with her claws, pushed up another third, and repeated to reach the rooftop. Once she was there, she looked out over the city skyline, wagging her tail in excitement.   
“Alright,” Leo started. “Hitomi you’re new to this so let me go over some ground rules...” A series of annoyed groans followed his statement.  
“No one listens to your rules anyways Lamenardo,” Raph snickered at his overused nickname for Leo. “Let's go kick some butt!”  
“Raph, you know Hitomi’s not allowed to fight with us. We shouldn’t go looking for trouble.”  
“Um, guys?”  
“I ain’t looking to trouble.”  
“I sure sounds like you are.”  
“Leo...”  
“You know what Leo, I’m getting sick of your crap. You’re not God’s golden child.”  
“I never said that!”  
“GUYS HITOMI LEFT” Mikey shouted out.  
“What do you mean, she left?” Leo asked, drawing his attention away from Raphael’s rantings.  
“I mean, she’s probably halfway to New Jersey by now,” Mikey replied, pointing a finger in the direction that Hitomi had run off too. April was already starting to run after her, with Donatello following April.  
“Let's go.”

☯

Hitomi relished in the feel of the wind in her hair. Her converse had long left her, along with her socks. Her feet pounded on the rooftops, and she soared over alleyways, only to land gracefully and keep running without faltering. She was fully prepared for whatever lecture Leo was going to give her once they caught up, but it was more than worth it. This was the closest thing to freedom she’d felt in over 2 months.  
She finally stopped running once she could see the outline of the Empire State Building. Then, despite her earlier ranting to Mikey, she threw her head back and howled.

☯

“Did you hear that?” a deep, gravely voice asked.  
“You’re hearing things again Bradford,” Xever replied, boredly playing with his new, elongated knives.  
“No I heard something. It sounded like a lost little wolf,” he grinned, and sniffed the air. Xever stood reluctantly, and they both took off towards the sound.

☯

“I see her, up there sitting on that building,” April shouted as she burst forward. She couldn’t understand how Hitomi could’ve gotten so far so fast. They’d been running in this direction for close to 30 minutes. After April leapt onto the building she’d been talking about, she slowed down to a walk, and came up behind Hitomi. She was sitting with her legs over the side of the roof, swinging them so her heels hit the bricks rhythmically.  
“You know, Leo’s probably going to chew you out for this,” she said, kneeling beside her.  
“Yeah, I know. Do you think he’ll tell Splinter?”  
“I dunno, maybe.”  
“Oh, well then I guess I’d better make the most of it,” she replied meekly, though she didn’t move to stand. “It’s really pretty up here.”  
“Yeah, it is.”  
“Are you crazy what if something had happened to you then what would I have to tell Splinter?”  
“Slow down Leo. You’re face is turning purple,” Hitomi said, not even turning around.  
“This isn’t funny. You can’t just go around doing whatever you want up here. You’re my responsibility now.”  
“I’m sorry. It’s just...” her hands flailed uselessly in front of her before slapping back onto her lap. Leo eyes softened.  
“Tell you what. If you promise to never do this again, I won’t tell Master Splinter. And you can come back here with us next week, but you have to stick with us. We just don’t want you to get hurt.” Hitomi grinned and stood in front of him.  
“What kind of punishment is she gonna get for pulling this Mr. Leader?” Raph asked finally catching up with Mikey and Donnie. To all of their surprise (especially Leo’s), Hitomi let out a little squeal as she threw her arms around his upper plaston. After a faint moment of shock, Leo hugged her back.  
“Aw man,” Raph complained. “He’s already gone soft on her.” April slugged him on the shoulder.  
“Come on guys. I think we should start heading back home,” Leo said, giving Hitomi one last little squeeze. With a grin plastered on her face, she followed behind the turtle boys with April by her side, and couldn’t help but think that there was no place she’d rather be.

If they would have looked back however, they would’ve seen the two sets of eyes, watching them leave through the darkness. They knew when they would be back, and that was when they would strike.

☯

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I just watched the season finale of season 2, and I have no idea what to do. I obviously need to finish up the idea I left off with in this chapter, but then I don’t know if I want to continue on my own path, or have a time lapse. So PLEASE comment and let me know what you think I should do. (Sorry for the late update and the shorter chappy. You’ll hear me say this 5,000 times, but teachers think I have no life. Literally). Sayonara my pretties.


	5. 5. Owned

April jerked back from her computer as the YouTube gamer let out a screech of all screeches.  
“Gah!” she threw her earbuds to the ground and briskly walked into the kitchen.  
“What just happened?” Hitomi asked, following close behind.  
“Freakin Amnesia,” she mumbled.  
“What’s Amnesia? I know it’s what Donnie says I have, but I have a feeling this is a different kind of Amnesia.”  
“Huh? Oh, it's a horror game that one of the YouTubers I like played a long time ago. I just now started watching them. I told myself I’d get through all of it, but it’s pretty scary. It really shouldn't be, but it is.”  
“I demand to see this video of frights,” Hitomi declared, dramatically putting her hands on her hips. She hadn’t been feeling too well this morning, so she got the day off from training with the guys. To make her day even better, April had stopped by a few hours earlier than usual, meaning that she wasn’t having to mope around the lair by herself.  
“Alright, but it’s your sleep, not mine.”

☯

The guys walked back into the pit to find April and Hitomi clinging to each other, situated around April’s laptop. Something flashed across the screen, and both of the girls let out a terrified yell and slammed the laptop shut.  
“That was awful! Why would you let me watch that?!” Hitomi accused.  
“What? You’re the one who wanted to watch it!” They hadn’t realized that the boys had finished their training and were watching the bout with mild amusement.  
“You’re the one who watched it in the first place.”  
“Well ya know what-?”  
“What’s going on?” Mikey asked, completely blowing their cover. Both girls whipped around.  
“How much of that did you see?” April asked, slightly nervous.  
“About from the point you two were screaming until now,” Mikey said rather cheerfully. Hitomi face-palmed.  
“Scarey video,” she explained.  
“What, the Big Bad Wolf is scared of a itty-bitty computer screen?” Raph mocked.  
“You’d better watch yourself Raphie,” Hitomi chidded. “April was scared of it too.”  
“Hey...” April’s eyes widened in realization. Raph slowly started heading back to his room. “You get your shell back here mister!” April ran after him. Raph pulled out a Sai and turned to fight.  
“Oh no you don’t!” Donatello growled, pulling out his own weapon and going after Raph. Hitomi looked at Leo and Mikey.  
“Pizza?”  
“Pizza.”

A box of pizza (and two good sized-lumps on Donnie’s head) later...

“So, what experiments do you have planned for today?” Hitomi asked, jumping up on the lab table.  
“What?” Donnie asked, looking up from his work. “Oh, nothing today. I think Leo wanted to see you in the Dojo though.”  
“Huh. Okay. Good luck with your... stuff.” Donnie gave a little salute-wave as Hitomi headed out the door. She slipped into the Dojo, finding that Leo was already there, sitting with his legs crossed under the tree.  
“Don said you wanted to see me?”  
“Yeah. You’ve been training with us, so I think it’s time you try out some meditation. Maybe it will help you remember something from your past life.”  
“By past life, do you mean my life before I lost my memory, or my life before I was reborn into this one?” she joked. Leo raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing. Hitomi suppressed her amusement and took a seat, mimicking Leo’s position.  
“Just, breathe. Clear your mind and breathe,” he whispered. Hitomi peeked at him, and noticed a slight glowing aura surrounding him. She squeezed her eyes shut and focused on breathing, but things kept distracting her. A fly buzzing through her flickering ears, Mikey gaming in the next room, even the sound of Leo’s even breaths were distracting! She let out a frustrated huff, causing Leo’s focus to falter. He peeked at her for a few seconds.  
“Keep trying.” Hitomi flattened her ears, closed her eyes, and spent the next 2 hours ‘focusing’. Her ears picked up the slightest movement from Leo that indicated he was getting up. Her eyes shot up along with her body.  
“You didn’t meditate at all, did you?”  
“Nope!” she replied cheerfully, popping the ‘p’. Leo sighed.  
“Well, I suppose the rest of the day is yours then. But it’s still your night to do the dishes,” he added as she ran back into the living room.  
“Got it!” Leo shook his head wearily as he watched her leave.

☯

 

After dinner- which April had to skip due to her dad having a panic attack- Hitomi went into the kitchen and started up on the dishes. She hummed quietly to herself as she did so. Leo was talking to Splinter back in the Dojo.  
“How did meditation go today?”  
“Not good. Sensei, she couldn’t even focus for 5 minutes, let alone 2 hours. She even told me all she did was sit there.”  
“Perhaps, a different method will be in order.”  
“What other method? How is she supposed to find her center if she can’t even meditate?” Splinter smiled, and motioned to Leonardo to follow him. He stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, and pointed to Hitomi. Her soft humming had now turned into a full-on concert. As she washed/dried the plates, she danced with them, and even used a glass as a microphone.

“I, don't, care what you think as long as its about me  
The best of us can find happiness in mi-i-i-isery  
I, don't, care what you think as long as it's about me  
The best of us can find happiness in misery”

As Leo watched, he noticed the slight, magenta colored aura surrounding her swinging form. Splinter simply nodded his head, and headed into the living area to spend time with his sons, with Leo following. It was movie night after all.

☯

“I would totally want to chill with the Avengers!” Mikey exclaimed, shoving another handful of popcorn into his mouth. “We could like, team up and defeat the Kraang together!”  
“Mikey, you do know that these are fictional characters, right?” April asked, snagging some of said popcorn. Raph snorted and simply took the whole bag away from Mikey.  
“Besides, why would they want to hang out with you?”  
“Duh, because I’m awesome!” Mikey made a lunge for the bag, and Raph simply held up his arm and slammed his palm into the orange clad turtle’s forehead.  
“I’d want to hang with Captain America,” Hitomi added distractedly.  
“And why is that?” April asked.  
“Cause, that man has some serious man-boobs. The good kind though. Like, the kind that I want to poke.”  
“What’re man-boobs? Why are there good and bad kinds?”  
“Shut it Mikey. Guys some of us are actually trying to watch the movie,” Leo announced aggressively.  
“Take a chill pill bro,” Mikey muttered, giving up on his popcorn all together. There was an awkward silence between the brothers for the rest of the movie. As soon as the end credits started rolling, Leo got up and went straight into his room. Hitomi’s ears tilted to follow his movements down the hall. Raph and Mikey followed Leo’s lead -if only that would happen on missions- and locked themselves away as well. Don had vetoed watching the movie in the first place, and was still working away in his lab.  
“What was up with that?” Hitomi asked as she and April picked up the living area.  
“With what?”  
“Leo, getting all pissy at us for our conversation during the movie. I mean, I can expect that kind of moodiness from Raph. But even Mikey seemed put out.”  
“Well,” April chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment. “I couldn’t tell you what was up with Leo. Mikey was probably just reacting to the negative energy his brothers were putting off or something.”

After April left, Hitomi crept down the hallway. She didn’t know why, but Leo’s attitude was upsetting her, and she was determined to find out what had caused this level of upset in the turtle. She stopped in front of his door, and pressed her ear up against it. Nothing but an occasional snore-that-wasn’t-actually-a-snore. He was sleeping. Resigning herself to ask in the morning, she walked past Raph’s room. There was grunting and the clanging of metal. Hesitantly, she started to knock, thought better of it, and turned to walk away. After her first step back towards the living room, there was a loud clank and the doorknob turned.  
“What do you want?” he asked gruffly. Hitomi whirled around.  
“N-nothing.”  
“I could hear you bumbling around from a mile away. What’re you doing back here?” he was leaning with one arm up on his doorframe, and just behind him you could see a weight set. He’d been working out when he’d heard Hitomi’s light footsteps stop in from of Leo’s door, and then his own.  
“I was going to ask Leo something,” she mumbled, scuffing her bare toes against the concrete floor. “But he was asleep.” Raph took in her hunched over posture. He shifted his weight.  
“What were you going to ask him?”  
“Nothing. It can wait.” She furrowed her brow and started to turn away again.  
“Wait,” Raph took a step forward. What’re you doing?! “Do you want to... Um. Come in and talk for awhile. I mean, I won’t be sleeping anytime soon. Unless you’re tired. And then you can go. You know what? Forget I even ask-”  
“Sure.”  
“What?”  
“Well, you’re aren’t going to be asleep. Maybe you’ll know what’s up with Leo.”  
“Yeah. I needed someone to sit on my shell while I do push-ups anyways.” He stepped to the side. Hitomi ducked under his arm, rolling her eyes when she knew he wasn’t looking. Raph stepped in after her, and after closing the door, he fell into a push-up position and started doing them. Hitomi watched silently for a few seconds, before plopping cross legged onto his back.  
“So, does Leo always get that pissy when people talk during movies?”  
“I don’t think it had anything to do with you guys talking. He’s just in a bad mood. We still haven’t found Karai... I think he likes her you know?” Raph couldn’t see her, but Hitomi was messing with her claws, thinking.  
“Doesn’t watching human movies bother you guys?”  
“What do you mean?” Raph grunted. Although Hitomi didn’t really weigh much, chatting while working out wasn’t really his thing. But he was the one who opened his big mouth and invited her in in the first place.  
“Well. Usually movie producers pick pretty attractive guys for their films. I thought maybe talking about how attractive Chris Evans is set you guys off.” Raph stopped working out completely, standing. Hitomi caught herself before she landed on her butt. She watched him pace.  
“I mean. I guess we try not to think about it that much. At least we never did until now.” He took in a heavy breath. “That’s all we seem to think about now. When we aren’t fighting other freaks like us anyways.” Hitomi studied the jack-o-lantern on Raph’s dresser.  
“You guys aren’t freaks.”  
“Oh really? Then how come when Mikey tries to make friends they all run away screaming. How come Leo writes in his journal about how much he hates himself? How much of a failure he is as a leader? Yeah, I read his diary. All Don can do anymore is mourn about how hideous he his. How he can never ever be with April because he’s nothing but a monster. A mutant. Why don’t we go out in the day? Why can’t I...” Raph cut himself off. “We’re all nothing but flaws dotting the face of the Earth.” Hitomi had gone silent, and Raph dared to glance up at her. Her head was down, so a veil of hair covered her face. It almost looked like she was trembling.  
“Hitomi? Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...”  
“Shut up.” she hissed, looking up fiercely.  
“What?”  
“I said, shut up!” She walked up to him, and gripped his shoulders tightly. “I don’t ever want to hear you talking about yourself that way. I don’t care what you and your brothers think. You’re more human than any human could ever be. You’re family is beautiful. Not because of the way you guys look, but because it’s a family filled with love, and strength, and generosity, and I’m damn proud to be a temporary part of it. So what if you’re green, scaley, a little rough around the edges? Who cares? I certainly don’t. You, all of you, are perfect. Now, I don’t ever want to hear those words come out of your mouth again. Got it?”  
Raph nodded.  
“And if I hear it from your brothers, I’m telling them the same thing I just told you.” She let her hands drop to her sides, took in a shaky breath, and then laughed. And Raph had never seen anything more beautiful. Fangs and all.

☯

 

“Well, aren’t we bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning?” Leo said in passing. Hitomi growled softly, and padded through the kitchen. Where was the damn coffee? She knows Donnie practically survives on the stuff, but where did they keep it? She inhaled deeply, letting her nose guide her to the ground up beans, hidden on top of the cupboards, probably for Mikey’s sake. That child didn’t need anything with caffeine in it. Leo crossed his arms with mock attitude.  
“You’d think someone who spend half the night in my brother’s room would be a little happier,” he joked. Hitomi crinkled her nose at him, stuffing the grounds into the top of the small coffee pot, pouring water in after it.  
“I wasn’t in there that long,” she countered, examining her claws one by one.  
“Um, from 11 until like 5 in the morning? NO. That's not long at all….” he muttered, drawing his cup of tea to his lips and taking a lengthy sip. When did he get tea? Hitomi shook her head, snagging her own cup and filling it with the now steaming coffee.  
“I might’ve fallen asleep…”  
“YOU SLEPT IN RAPH’S ROOM?!” Leo practically spit out his tea. Over the few months that she’d been here, he’d noticed the soft spot Raph has for the wolf-girl. But letting her sleep in his room?  
“Would you quiet down?” she hissed. “It wasn’t like we shared the bed or anything. I just, fell asleep when we were talking. He didn’t wake me up when I did. I’m assuming he just made himself a bed on the floor, ‘cause that’s how I found him at 5 this morning, when I woke up and went back to my own room.”  
“Hmm.” Leo tilted his head in concentration.   
“Please don’t tell anyone Leo…” Hitomi put on a puppy face. It wasn’t so much for herself, but for Raph. The poor guy would probably drop dead of embarrassment if anyone found out he let a girl sleep in his bed while he took the floor.  
“Don’t tell anyone what?” Mikey’s voice chimed into the conversation as he made his way out of the pit and into the kitchen. Hitomi stiffened, her ears twitching back and forth from the mental effort of thinking up a lie. Luckily for her, Leo was there to rescue her.  
“It’s none of your business Mikey,” Leo said bluntly, sipping his tea and walking out of the kitchen. Mikey pouted and stared at Hitomi, expecting her to tell him. When she didn’t, he huffed and pulled the freezer open. Hitomi scuffled out and plopped onto the concrete couch, wincing as her tail was almost crushed under her weight. Delicately, she pulled it to the side and tucked it across her lap, holding the warm coffee mug to her chest.  
Raphael walked in, his mask crooked. He gave a grunt of recognition in Hitomi’s direction, and lumbered into the kitchen.

☯

 

It was a week later, and, as Leo promised, Hitomi was out on patrol with them. She was sitting cross legged in the middle of the Shellraiser, waiting patiently. She knew that once the boys had sufficiently scanned the area for any signs of the Kraang or the Foot, they would let her run. It was almost like taking your dog for a walk, ironically enough. Slowly, to avoid attracting any attention, Leo pulled the massive vehicle into an alleyway. 

Ding Dong

Hitomi was out and scaling the building before seat belts had even been removed. This time though, she waited, albeit impatiently, for the others to join her before taking off. The four hulking figures joined her on the roof, adorned with their respective gear. Hitomi’s tail was trembling with the effort to stand still. Leo signaled the all clear sign, and her figure dashed off into the night.  
This time her clothing was more… comfortable, to say the least. The humid spring nights were sticky enough without a cotton shirt clinging to her skin. Tonight, her outfit was simple, wild, yet elegant. Her top was cropped in a deep V, black, with pink bands wrapped around her back to her sides. At the center of her chest, a turquoise tree-like figure branched out and connected at pink dots to the sleek fabric. Her bottom consisted of a bikini she’d sewn two pieces of her shirt material, with turquoise leather detailing surrounding it. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she was barefooted.  
The turtles kept their distance, though they never let Hitomi out of their line of sight. Until they whipped right past her. Hitomi was stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide, electric yellow in color. Her ears flipped around wildly, and her nostrils were flared. Raph was the first one to get turned around and back to her side.  
“What is it?” His voice was barely above a whisper. Hitomi’s tail swished elegantly to her left, alerting him to the presence of two, unfortunately familiar shadows. Xever and Bradford were unsuccessfully hidden behind an alley dumpster. At least, that’s what the turtles thought.  
Leo drew his sword, planning on jumping down in a surprise attack, when a figure barreled in from his right, slamming straight into Hitomi and Raphael, successfully knocking them over.  
“Tiger Claw!” Donnie called in surprise, bringing his Bō diagonally across his chest in a defensive position. The feline mutant bared his fangs at them, pulling out his pistols and aiming right for Hitomi’s head with both. She growled and jumped out of the way as his large fingers pressed down on the trigger. A howl escaped her throat as she leaped forward with her claws leading. She latched onto Tiger Claw’s shoulder, tearing at the fur there, ripping the flesh underneath. He threw her off with a grunt and moved to fire again.  
Raph let out a yell of his own as he used his Sais to pry the guns out of his enemy’s paws, saving Hitomi in the process. With his pistols thrown off the roof, Tiger Claw and no choice but to try and fight off all of the turtles with his fists, something he was more approving of than you may think.  
“Bradford and Xever were just a distraction!” Leo yelled, his Katana’s at the ready. Tiger Claw smirked.  
“You have something that belongs to Shredder,” he stated bluntly. His whiskers twitched and he looked towards Hitomi. The turtles look at her. So she was a project for the Shredder. Not that it mattered to them anymore. Like April, she’d become like a second sister to them, and Shredder couldn’t just take something like that away from them without a fight. Hitomi beat them to this point however.  
“I don’t belong to anyone!” She yelled angrily, her eyes flashing blood red for a few seconds.  
“You do when you’ve been paid for,” Tiger Claw sneered. Hitomi crouched back, prepared to pounce, when a large, bony hand came and grabbed her from behind. Bradford stuffed her into a sack and tossed her down to Xever, who was waiting on a fire escape.  
“Let's get outta here!” he cried when he saw the turtles all coming for him at once. Bradford and Tiger Claw held them off while Xever pushed the bag into a van, and took off. His partners leapt off of the building and landed on the side doors, and they disappeared into the dark New York City streets.


	6. 6. Monster

“We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us.”  
\--Charles Darwin--

Hitomi was desperate for water. Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth, and her throat was dry as dirt. Dirt that would turn to mud with a some water.... Hell she’d even drink a little mud at this point, just to hydrate her arid body.  
It’d been around a week since she’d been snatched away from her simple sewer life with April and they guys. Now, that distant memory seemed to be a luxury. Yeah, living in the sewers wouldn’t really be anyone’s first choice, but it was the Bahamas compared to this place. She’d lost count of how many needles had been stuck into her body, let alone which ones were pushing stuff in and which ones were sucking stuff out. She looked like a heroin addict at this point, with track marks spanning her arms. Her superhuman healing powers had disappeared after the second day without water. But somehow, she was still alive.   
Hitomi looked around the walls of her cell. Claw marks covered the stones, and rocky pebbles surrounded her, all her doing, though she never remembered doing it. Sometimes when the needles came, she would become weak, and other times, she would be filled with sudden anger and energy. Whenever this happened, she blacked out. Everytime she woke up, there were new marks on the wall. Eventually one of Shredder’s goons had shackled her wrists and ankles, claiming it was for her own protection. Yeah, right, she scoffed inwardly. She stretched her arms out as far as her chains would allow.  
Shredder had yet to show himself, preferring to send his henchmen to do his dirty work. Today however, would be different. A bright blue eye appeared in the small observing window of her cell. It was Rocksteady, the Russian rhino mutant. Hitomi’s ears flicked as she heard the lock click open, and he stepped in.  
“Is lucky day, wolf girl,” he grunted in his thick accent. “Shredder is ready to see handywork.” He unlocked her ankles so she could walk, but used the chains around her wrists like a leash to lead her above ground. She’d been in the dark so long, a whimper escaped when the light hit her eyes. Rocksteady just pulled her chains harder. By the time they made it to what she assumed was Shredder’s throne room, she was ready to throw up. At this point she didn’t even know how she was walking. Sheer will she supposed.   
As she looked into Shredder’s one good eye, a small, black dot being the only occupant, she thought of Raphael. Then came the rest of the brothers, followed by April and Casey. What were they doing right now? Planning her heroic rescue? Or maybe, they didn’t care at all. Maybe they were sitting around the television, eating pizza and watching reruns of Space Heros. She could hear Raph’s complaints in her mind.   
Shredder unsheathed his steel claws and stalked ever closer. Rocksteady pulled her chains tight, keeping her in place. A growl escaped her throat, allowing her to bare her fangs, enlarged by instinct and the danger looming a few feet in front of her. A laugh escaped his throat. It was a rough, ugly sound that shoved into her ears and grated through her brain.  
“You’ll be thanking me someday, little girl,” he snarled, and raised his blades above his head.

☯

Breaking into the Shredder’s lair was becoming old news. The guy really needed to find a new hideout. Spice things up a bit. A flash of white eyes behind a blue mask appeared over the glass ceiling, unnoticed. Behind Leo, Donnie stood with a circular saw and a glass grabber. Neatly, he cut a circle out the window and pulled it back, allowing Raph and April to slip down into the room. Mikey, Donnie, and Leo followed, landing quietly next to the others.  
It was quiet. Too quiet, Raph thought, turning in a small circle. It was clear that Shredder wasn’t in his throne room. All of the lights were off, and a quick investigation of his chair showed it to be empty.  
“Hitomi has to be here somewhere,” April whispered. “I can feel her presence.” She didn’t feel like mentioning the strange aura surrounding the presence she felt. They needed to focus all of their efforts on finding the wolf mutant and getting out of there without getting caught. Mikey was stumbling around in the dark, and inevitably he stepped on a button. They all froze as they heard it click all the way down, and the wall to their left opened up, flooding the area with light. A deep, but somewhat familiar growl came from the new doorway.  
“Hitomi…” The small sound had come from Raph. He stood, staring, mystified by the oversized, chocolate brown wolf. Her swirling eyes stared back at him, but she blinked and the moment was gone. Now the was looking into an endless black. Her white teeth flashed as the leapt forward, only to be yanked back by the collar around her neck. She was fighting hard against her restraints, and they could all hear the wall behind her cracking from the pressure. Soon she would be free to do as she pleased. And right now that looked like dismembering everything that stood before her.  
“Shredder must’ve bailed, and left us to kill or be killed,” Donnie said, somehow still calm. He pressed on his Bō, and the metallic tip sang as it emerged. Mikey had gone over and was trying to talked to Hitomi, but she wasn’t responding. Raph placed a heavy hand on Donnie’s shoulder.  
“You aren’t really going to…”  
“Of course not! I’m insulted,” Donnie exclaimed, pulling away from his brother. “No, if we can sedate her, we can get her into back to the Shellraiser, and to Splinter. He’ll know what to do.”  
“And you need your blade for what exactly?” April asked, timid. Donnie’s eyes trailed up his Bō, landing on the tip.  
“It seemed like a dramatic thing to do.” Raph hit him and April scowled.  
“How’re we going to sedate her,” Leo asked, eyes never moving from the mass of angry brown fur.  
“We gotta hit her. Preferably right behind the ear.” When he was shot more dirty looks, the purple clad turtle threw up his hands. “I didn’t exactly bring any sedatives with me!” As his yell echoed around them, Hitomi broke free. Releasing a noise that was neither human nor animal, she charged.  
Mikey was the first to go down. He was standing too close. Next came Donnie, then Leo. Raph and April stood, appalled. Raph pulled out a Sai, and did his best to fend her off, but his heart wasn’t in it, and she was much, much stronger than him now. Everyone but April now had swirly eyes and stars floating above their heads.  
Hitomi stood, panting, her eyes struggling between black and sky blue as she looked into April’s eyes. April approached slowly, ignoring Donatello’s protests. Hitomi’s ears turned back and she let out a soft, low growl. April didn’t flinch, and continued a steady approach. Standing nose to nose with Hitomi, April noticed that she was shuddering. Beneath her muddy colored coat, her ribs could be seen. Her nose was dry and cracked.  
“Poor thing,” April whispered, reaching out to touch the girl she’d come to think of as a sister. As her fingertips made contact with Hitomi’s temple, a golden light flashed, and the wolf fell to the ground, leaving an unconscious girl in it’s place. Hitomi’s body was in a pitiful state. In her undressed state, all of her bones were clearly visible. Her skin had lost it’s warm bronze tint, and needle marks covered her arms.  
The turtles approached slowly, and Leo covered Mikey’s eyes. April positioned Hitomi’s hair to cover any important parts, before Raph lifted her limp body, and carried her out of the building.

☯

A sickening smile crossed Tiger Claw’s face as he approached the lair doors. That mutant wolf girl must’ve ripped those turtles to shreds. He laughed darkly as he opened the door, expecting to find a bloody mess and scattered shell. Instead there was a hole in the ceiling, and Hitomi was nowhere to be seen. With a yell, Tiger Claw destroyed the nearest wall with his fists.

☯

April walked into Raph’s room, hesitant. Raphael sat in a chair next to his bed, sleeping. He hadn’t moved in days. The steady beeping of a machine filled the room courtesy of Hitomi’s somewhat steady heartbeat. Said girl was lying in Raph’s bed, unmoving since he’d carried her there. He didn’t put her down the whole car ride. It took April almost a half hour to talk him into letting her take Hitomi into the showers to clean her up. The guy was beside himself with worry.   
“Raph, I brought you food,” April said gently, holding out a slice of cold pizza. Raph opened a bleary green eye, before taking it with a grateful nod. He chewed in silence, then sighed, putting the pizza down after only one bite.  
“She hasn’t moved,” he said blankly, as if talking about the weather, or news story. April’s mouth curved into a half-frown, and her forehead wrinkled as her brows scrunched together. Raph continued.  
“I’ve tried talking to her, touching her hand, increasing her fluids. I’d even perform a song and dance at this point, if I knew it would help.” April walked over to Hitomi, and placed a careful hand on her forehead.  
“I don’t know how to help you Raph,” she sighed. “But you can’t sit here forever. Your brothers need you. We’re still looking for Karai, still looking for the spilled mutagen. We have other priorities.” Raph stood suddenly, glowering at April from across the bed.  
“She is our priority,” he hissed. Without thinking, he slammed his fist into the pillow next to Hitomi’s head, jolting her. The monitors around her turned red for a moment, emitting a high pitched drone, before returning back to normal. The others ran in due to the commotion, just in time to see bright red eyes flash open. Donnie immediately swooped in to run vitals, causing her eyes to bleed into a matching shade of purple to his bandana. No sooner had she looked at Donnie, did she turn her head back to Raph. This time, her eyes mirrored his, fluorescent green. She smiled briefly, then blinked and groaned as if it pained her.  
“I feel like crap,” she muttered, hoarse from not using her voice for so long. From spending her first two days captive screaming. Pain radiated from her skull, and she shrank back into Raph’s pillows, her eyes turning yellow. Machine’s indicated that her heart rate was increasing, and her oxygen intake was decreasing. Raph rushed over and smacked the machines, like it would make it stop.  
“You aren’t helping Raph,” Donnie said calmly, removing Hitomi’s IV line. “She’s must be remembering her time captive. And you yelling and hitting things won’t help her. She’ll calm down in a minute.”  
“Can we get you anything?” Mikey asked hopefully, stepping closer. Hitomi smiled at him until her eyes squinted, then her face went blank, unreadable.  
“No Mikey, I’m just tired. Too much excitement.” She attempted to smile again, but barely mustered a smirk. She could halfway see Leo in the doorway, unsure of where he stood in Raphael’s room. She thought about saying something to him, to let him know he was welcome, but couldn’t find the energy to do so.  
“We’ll leave you alone then,” Donnie said, shutting down the monitors.   
“When you feel better, you can come out onto the couch and watch some TV with us!” Mikey’s enthusiasm was hard not to imitate. Hitomi nodded and laughed softly, before waving goodbye to everyone.

☯

Hitomi knew she could probably walk by now. The numb feeling in her legs was long gone, as was the headache that throbbed through her temple. She could remember everything clearly now. All of the times she’d changed into that… That monster. Thinking that was the only way she could live with herself at the moment. It wasn’t her that had attacked her friends, her family. No, it was the monster inside of her.  
She tossed and turned, trying to get some sleep, but it was ever elusive. Her stomach churned as she thought about the beast living just under her skin. Eventually, she noticed a shadow in the doorway, a tattered mask hanging from his face. It was Raphael.  
“Raph…” Hitomi was horrified. Of what she didn’t know. He stepped into the soft light of the room. She could see the anguish in his face, something she’d never been witness to before. He must be disgusted with her. Instead of turning and leaving her to toss through the night like she expected, he came in, shutting the door behind him. He sat in his chair, and reached out, wiping a tear off of her cheek. She hadn’t even realized she was crying.  
“I could hear you kicking from a mile away,” he said, meaning it as a joke. More tears welled up in her eyes, his words and the memories finally catching up to her broken mind. The dam broke. She let out a little hiccup as salt water ran down her cheeks. Raph furrowed his brows.  
“Hey no, I didn’t mean it like that….” Hitomi only cried harder.  
“I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry….” she wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for. Raph’s reaction was something she’d never expected. Instead of staying in his seat and trying to reassure her, he lifted the blankets and gently scooted her over before pulling her to his plastron. Hitomi continued to hiccup.  
“Don’t do the crying thing, okay?” he whispered. He ran his three green fingers through her snow white hair. In response, she tucked her head against him, setting. Raphael continued to pet her hair and rub her back until her tears ran dry and her breaths became slow and even.  
“Everything is going to be fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A'ight so I know Mona Liza and Raph are a thing in the 2k12 verse now. Buuuuuut this is my fic and I already gave Don to April so Raph is Hitomi's. K? K. Comment ideas and stuff!


	7. 7. Raph's Soft Side and Hitomi's Fears

The door had creaked at some point, waking him. Beyond that, Raphael couldn’t remember anything. He was well past being awake that this point, but he refused to open his eyes. The only thing he was aware of was his breathing, and the warm pressure lying against him. Without looking, he knew Hitomi had her cheek against his heart, her arm carelessly tossed across the right side of his chest. Their breaths were aligned perfectly, originally giving him the allusion that he could only hear himself.   
He needed to get up.  
He needed to get out of this vulnerable position before someone saw him. Green eyes snapped open and flicked across the room, pupils dilating at the sliver of light coming in from his open door. Raph looked down, telling himself that he was going to get up. He wasn’t about to catch hell from Leo for missing morning Katas. Or worse, have one of his brother’s snooping into his room looking for him, only find him with his arms curled protectively around this all too fragile girl.  
His resolved fled quickly as his eyes landed on Hitomi’s sleeping face, and memories of last night hit him. Like clockwork by the hour, she’d woken up screaming, shot up like a rod. The others had come running the first time, but left quickly when they saw the position their brother was in, sitting up behind her with his arms wrapped around her torso, keeping her flailing arms pinned. After each episode, she would peacefully fall back onto Raph, and go to sleep like nothing had happened. The second time, Donatello dared to venture closer, alerting Raph to what was going on.  
“She’s having night terrors,” he whispered, rushing to leave his brother’s half glare far behind him for relative safety of his lab. “Hitomi isn’t actually waking up, but her body is mimicking the actions of her dream self.” Raph nodded roughly, and hid the disgust behind a solid, emotionless mask until Donnie had left. Whatever Shredder had done to her, to give her nightmares this horrible, he would pay. Raph would personally insure that he payed.  
A small sigh escaping Hitomi’s lips caused him relax against his pillow. He didn’t even notice how tense he’d become. Everyone already knew, so there was no point in getting up now and risk waking her. After the 5th or 6th terror -Raph was more focused on calming her than keeping count- Hitomi had woken up for real. Sweat had caused her silky tresses to curl and mash into her neck. Raph’s forehead was pressed against her shoulder, trying his best to hold her steady, despite the chills raking through her body. Every shiver sent a wave a pain through Raph. He’d never been helpless before. He’d always had a purpose. To use his anger and brute strength to stun and take down an enemy. Here, the danger was invisible, the enemy untouchable, hidden within Hitomi’s mind. It was all he could do to hold on tightly, and hope that he kept her from slipping away.  
“I’m dangerous,” she had whispered, pulling herself away from his gentle grip. A small noise of annoyance escaped Raph’s throat. With more force than he intended, he pulled her back to him, and she didn’t fight. She turned against him so he could see her face now. The underside of her eyes hung heavy with lack of sleep. Her skin was only regained a slight glow, and her eyes remained a muted gray color. Her lip quivered and Raph sighed. It wasn’t annoyed this time, more tired than anything.  
“You’re far from dangerous Angel.” She’d pressed against him then, all innocent and scared and… Broken. Sure, Hitomi had never really tried to hide her feelings from him and his brothers. But this was different. All of her nerve endings were frayed and exposed to him now, pressed against his plastron as she struggled to hold back another round of tears. Raph gripped her sides tightly, growling in his deep timbre.  
“Whatever they did to you there,” he rasped, his voice raw with uncontrolled emotions. “It won’t happen to you here. I won’t let it happen again. Never.” Hitomi had been surprised at his words then, eyes welled up.  
“You can’t protect me from myself,” she whispered, barely audible. And then he knew. She was scared, not of capture or torture. She was afraid of what she had become. The wolf inside of her. The Ookami. Not able to find the rights words, something he’d never been able to do in his life, Raph went back to what had worked earlier. He went back to stroking her hair. Brushing her velvet tipped ears between his squared fingers. It was at that point she’d lied down on his chest again, facing him, bringing them to the position they were in now.

Raph wasn’t sure how long he’d been watching Hitomi sleep, or even at what point he’d started rubbing her ears again, but a small noise drew him away from his musings. Her tail had started thumping against his leg. Her eyes were open, a sleepier version of his own. She smiled lazily and leaned into his palms. The surprise of her willingness to be so close to him caused him to falter, and the moment fell. Hitomi rubbed a sleepy eye, her mouth formed a perfect ‘o’ shape. A triangle fang poked out. Her eyes cleared as she began to wake up, sucking in a breath as she realized where she was, and more importantly, who she was with. Raph, thinking his presence unwanted, slid from the bed defeatedly.   
The space next to Hitomi was left cold and empty, and she whined. It wasn’t even a whimper this time, it was a full out “why would you do something like that you should feel ashamed and guilty as hell” whine. Raph gave her a surprised look as he tied his mask over his face, sliding on the rest of his daily gear. She’s actually pouting right now? he thought, bemused.  
“I’ll be back with some food,” he mumbled, patting her head as he passed. A low rumble came from her throat in the form of a growl, and he heard her flop back into the bed with a thump. 

☯

When Raph finally rambled into the kitchen, no one dared to say anything about the fact that it was almost 11, or about what happened last night. Leo had checked on his brother and Hitomi earlier that morning, around 6, and found them still sleeping. Hitomi was a soft shape under the sheets compared to Raph’s bulky, square muscles and shell. But they’d looked so peaceful there, and he knew Raph hadn’t slept at all that night. He’d been too worried by Hitomi’s previous comatose state as well as her night terrors. Donnie had explained that to him as well. At some point during the night, they’d stopped, and no one was going to complain about that.  
All eyes remained on their plates. Even Casey, who had shown moments ago to hang out with his best bro, only to be shot down by Leo and April, who banned him from entering Raph’s room. Casey always had something smart to say, but now he pulled his lips tight, and studied the omelet that April had made him. April broke the silence first.  
“I made you and Hitomi some omelets too,” she said, cheery as usual. “I figured you’d be too tired to really make a good breakfast for her, and she’d be too weak to do it herself…” Footsteps padding through the room cut her off. Hitomi stood in a pair of boyshorts and a tank top. A sleep tattoo was pressed into her face in the shape of Raph’s shell crack. While all eyes were on her, her eyes were on Raph, the one person who refused to look at her.  
“Look at you this morning Wolfie,” Casey grinned. He’d known about about Hitomi’s capture and less-than-heroic return. He also knew about her staying in Raph’s room, as her own didn’t have a proper bed. Just a hammock strung up in one corner, which she was more than fine with. But no one wanted her in it while she was out.  
“You’ve always gotta have something to say, don’t you Big Mouth,” Raph growled, not even bothering to turn around. All eyes moved to his hulked over form. They could see him pulling away, mentally, from the sudden attention he’d drawn to himself. Quickly, he found the omelets April had made, shoved them both onto one plate, and stomped over to Hitomi. Her large golden eyes stared up at him. He would never get use to the constant changing.  
“Eat,” he commanded, putting the plate into her hands. Without saying a word to anyone else, he slipped out, towards to Dojo. Leaving Hitomi standing in the middle of the kitchen with a plate of food she no longer felt up to eating.

☯

Splinter watched his son from behind his door. Raphael had always been an angry child, but even then, it came with its advantages. What he saw now however, was not anger. Even Splinter could not place the emotion that emanated with each punch Raph gave to the sandbag. He punched and yelled and punched until his knuckles were bruised. The only reason he stopped was because he’d managed to break the bag. Sand spilled out onto the rug, and Raph hit the floor, burying his face in his hands.  
He usually avoided meddling in his son's affairs, knowing that he would not always be around to guide them. Even now, as the red material around Raph’s eyes stained dark with unseen salt water, he did not approach. Splinter watched through glassy eyes as realization washed over him. Without making a sound, he closed his door, and turned the picture of Tang Shen and Miwa. He would meditate on this.

☯

April sat behind Donnie as he conducted his experiments. He did his best to ignore her, and the way her occasional movement would waft the scent of her apple shampoo towards him. Or the way her eyes shone, as they always did when something involving science was happening. No. He was 110% focused on his task of watching Hitomi’s mutated blood cells in a petri dish. With a precision, he adjusted the microscope, drawing sharp focus to a specific cell.  
“What do you see,” April whispered excitedly. He could smell the spicey-sweet scent of cinnamon tea on her breath, and all focus was lost. With a heavy sigh, he pushed his wheeled chair back and turned to her.  
“You have your typical human DNA strand right?” he asked. April drew the picture in her mind, and nodded. “Well, imagine another DNA strand tangled inside of your own. Pulling and stretching at the connections, trying to break them.” April tilted her head in thought.  
“Sounds painful. Like having your own being ripped away from you,” she said, her face pinched.  
“Go look at the blood cells under the microscope. Tell me what you see.”  
“I see…. Oh my God what is happening?” The cells all had cells within them. Inside of the one that Don had focused on, the center cell was stretching, ripping through the main human cell until it was engulfed completely, leaving the once pink membrane an ominously dark purple. “I’m assuming the inner cell is the wolf cell?”  
“That’s a safe assumption,” he muttered, writing equations out on his board. “April…” he started. “I’m not sure how safe Hitomi is anymore. I don’t think you should be with her without me- One of us around.”   
“Don’t try to give a lecture on how dangerous Hitomi may or may not be.”  
“I’m just saying…” April cut him off with a scowl. She looked at the lab door and crossed her arms over her chest pointedly.  
“NO. You don’t get to say Donnie. You know, for all of your smarts, you really are quite clueless.” Donnie stumbled back as she swept out of the lab through the garage door. A few moments later, he noticed Hitomi. She’d been waiting outside the door, wanting to talk to him without interrupting their work. Her ears were down and her forehead was furrowed. As soon as Donnie looked at her, her eyes shot to the floor, and her tail curved along the outside of her hip. All of these were the physical communications of a depressed wolf.  
“Oh Kami… Hitomi, I didn’t mean…” Donnie fumbled for his words. She held her hand up, turned on her heels, and walked away, her questions forgotten. Back under the microscope, more and more cells were mutating.

☯

A flash of white and a gust of wind passed Raph in the hallway. Hitomi’s room door slammed shut before he even realized it was her. Curiosity drew him to her door, but a loud crash and a snarl caused him to open it. Her hammock was ripped from the hooks in the wall, with pillow and mattress fluff surrounding the torn netting. Four long, jagged claw marks marred the concrete wall, and in the middle of the room sat a wolf. Like last time, her fur was a muddy brown, her fangs were bared and her ears were pressed against her skull.  
But her eyes were not black. They were silver, swirled with red and gold, never really staying a solid color for long. As Hitomi looked at Raph, who had put his hands up in a placating manner, her hackles lowers and her snarls dissipated to a low rumbling. Finally, her eyes settled on gold, and she sat down in the middle of her mess, panting softly. Her tongue lolled happily to the side, and she actually started to wag her tail.   
Raph was besides himself. Did he stay, did he go get help? What made her shift in the first place? Hitomi huffed and stood again, clearly annoyed. She walked up to Raph and pressed her huge furry side to his, giving a small bark. Her size rivaled his own. Though Raph had never been the tallest brother by far, the top of her shoulders were in line with his own, and for a wolf that was pretty big. Pleased that he had paid her attention, Hitomi went back to her room and lied down.  
“What the shell?!” April's voice came from the opposite end of the hall. Raph didn’t turn around, but he could hear her boots thudding as she ran closer.  
“I wouldn’t run if I were you,” Raph said quietly, but loud enough for April to take note and slow herself to a walk. She stood on her toes to peer over Raph’s shoulder, where she saw Hitomi studying her with bright eyes. April pushed past Raph, ignoring his protests, and sat on her knees in front of the brown wolf. Hitomi sniffed and licked her palm gently.  
“I’m going to kill Donnie,” April muttered.  
“Donnie did this?” Raph hissed, stepping in next to April. He was going to kill Donnie.  
“Not on purpose…” April muttered, still pissed. “He said some things to me about not being around her on my own in case she became dangerous. She was standing there the whole time, but he didn’t know.” She ran her hands over Hitomi’s back. Raph went to do the same, and without warning, Hitomi jumped up and ran out the door, yapping playfully as she went. Raph ran after her, with April close behind.  
Hitomi stopped in the living room, bowing her back and sticking her tail up. April giggled in realization, remembering the things she’d learned about wolves on the internet.  
“She wants to play Raph!” April chimed, crouching down and slapping her hands on the floor. The she-wolf huffed through her nose and bounced on her front paws. Raph watched in fascination as April pounched. It seemed as if Hitomi positioned herself so that April would land on the soft of her underbelly on purpose. She rolled, pinning the red headed girl to the floor. A small part of Raph was concerned for April’s safety, but his thoughts wandered back to all of the times Hitomi had protected April, even when it wasn’t really necessary. The playful air waned as the sound of a soft shiiiiing from the kitchen entryway.  
Hitomi spun to face Leonardo. The fur along her back raised as she observed his Katana, held steadily in front of him with the blade turned towards her. Towards April. The low rumble turned to a snarl as her lips curled back over her muzzle, exposing teeth that could easily de-shell a turtle. The tip of her tail brushed April’s stomach, and she began to back up, pushing April farther away from Leo, towards the Dojo. Raph pulled a Sai. The movement drew Hitomi’s attention long enough for Leo to make an advance. She ducked, the sword barely missing the tips of her ears. Instead of attacking, Hitomi shoved harder against April’s body, causing her to stumble and fall. She stayed standing over the human girl, refusing to budge. 

PROTECT. The word echoed through their brains.

 

Donnie ran out of the lab.  
“STOP,” he cried, using his Bō to whack Leo’s weapon away from him. Raph dropped his on his own, having only drawn it do to instinct. “She’s protecting April. She thinks you’re going to hurt her.”  
“How do you know that?” Leo inquired, keeping his eyes on the wolf.  
“April’s blood,” Donnie panted. “I was doing research into the Ookami legends. The alpha of the pack will do anything to protect their blood, or their mates. It was their ultimate downfall. All of feudal Japan began injecting the Ookami people with their own blood, making them slave-like bodyguards. Many of them died protecting their masters. When Shredder was mutating Hitomi, when we first found her, one of the tubes was feeding her April’s blood. I’m assuming that’s why she remained mostly human. Whatever Shredder did to her while he had her must have given her a semi-permanent ‘final form’ so to speak. He made her to be his personal bodyguard,” he finished. Mikey wandered in, holding a popsicle.  
“Did anyone else just hear that?” he asked, licking noisily. He noticed Hitomi, who had calmed, and was now pressing her muzzle to Raph’s palm, licking and making chirp-like barks at him. “Woah Raph, when did you get a dog? Is that even a dog?” He squatted down to peer at the ‘dog’. Hitomi put on a wolfy grin, and snatched his frozen treat. “HEY!”  
“It’s not a dog, it’s Hitomi. Shell for brains…” Raph muttered the last part, but Mikey was too busy chiding Hitomi to hear his insult. She licked his freckled cheek and all was forgiven.  
“Okay. New question. How do we change her back?”  
☯

It was like the first day Casey had met Hitomi all over again. He could not. Stop. Staring. Raph was clearly getting annoyed, but she seemed oblivious. After eating Mikey’s popsicle, she’d darted into the kitchen, and raided the still open fridge. She was napping now, her ear flicking occasionally.  
“I leave for hockey practice and come back to this,” he muttered. Donatello rolled his eyes, and April giggled at him. Everyone had gathered in the living area, save for Master Splinter, in an attempt for solve their current predicament. Raph was reading comics in his bean bag chair, Mikey was listening to music in his tire swing, and April was sandwiched between Casey and Donnie on the couch. While Don maintained an appropriate distance, Casey had other ideas. He leaned into April, smiling at her. Mostly out of politeness, April smiled back, and returned her attentions back to Hitomi. Casey was less than pleased.  
“So Red,” he started, stretching in an oh-so-obvious way, ready to set his arm behind her. It was ridiculously cheesy, and Hitomi was having none of it. Though it looked as if she were sleeping, a low rumble was coming from her form in front of the TV.

NOT MATE. NO TOUCH. 

Casey was never going to get used to that feeling. It was like hearing a voice in his head that wasn’t his own, and it was telling him what to do and what not to do. Favoring his life, however, he quickly withdrew, even going so far as to scoot a few inches away from April. Donnie and Hitomi snorted at the same time.  
Despite her lupine form, Hitomi was very aware. She understood what others were saying to her, although instinct sometimes kept her from listening. And she was surprisingly affectionate, nuzzling and licking at anyone who came her way. Her eyes opened lazily, and her skin shuttered. Her pupils dilated, and she stood, stumbling back towards the rooms. When the others stood to follow her, she sent one word, before disappearing.

CHANGE.

She reemerged from her room, looking groggy but none the worse for wear. She waved nervously at everyone, clearly uncomfortable.  
“Yo,” she muttered, plopping onto the floor next to Raph. He raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing. Donnie was staring at her now.  
“What made you change?” he asked. “Was it the things I said?” Hitomi shrugged.  
“Dunno. I honestly don’t remember too much. Just…. I was so upset… Over something? I don’t recall what it was. Next I know, my stomach was clenching and I knew I was going to change. I also remember eating Mikey’s popsicle. Sorry Mike,” she added, grinning sheepishly.  
“Perhaps it’s emotion that surges the mutation…” Don wandered off to the lab. April watched him through her lashes, something Hitomi and Casey most definitely did not miss. Hitomi could see Casey glaring at the back of April’s head.  
“Watch it Jones,” she said. Her demeanor had flipped entirely. April turned to stick her head out at the so-called puck head.  
“Well, I think Donnie Boy was right about you going all out to protect April,” Raph said casually from his seat. Hitomi’s lips curved into a frown.  
“Ugh, I smell like wolf. I think I’m going to take a shower.” She walked off. Leaving more questions than answers.

**Author's Note:**

> So there you have it! PLEASE leave a comment. It can be about what you did or didn't like even. I don't care. I just like any form of feedback. XD


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